Lt Col Chakri Maigumponsuth of the Phang Nga Marine Police and his team yesterday (Apr 4) escorted the boat captain, Mr Lahmarn Kuji and one crew member, Mr Weerapong Pethsiri, for questioning after they allegedly took Chinese mainland and Hong Kong tourists to fish in Similan National Park territory and demanded they provide the location where they stopped to fish.
Lt Col Chakri said, “Lahmarn said that the location where he took the tourists to fish was four nautical miles away from the Similan islands. He also said it was within his normal route and not in national park territory.
“However, officials noticed that the location given did not coincide with the AIS geo-location system report,” he said.
“Officers asked to check the boat’s AIS system, but Lahmarn said the AIS system was not set up to locate the boat when it stopped so it must not be working correctly. They also asked to look at CCTV footage from the boat,” he added.
Similan National Park Chief, Nat Gonggeysorn said, “The captain said the area where the incident took place was not within the national park, but he cannot prove that. In addition, all the fishing equipment on board does not help their case either as they only have a permit to operate as a tour boat not a fishing boat.”
“The operator is now banned from entering Moo Koh Similan for 30 days effective today ( Apr 4),” he said.
“National park officials will provide training for the boat captain and the company guides so they know our territory.”
“I want to let all boat operators, including tour guides, know that the natural resources within the national park area are valuable to us all and that they should be helping in preserving marine life and the environment. If all the natural resources are destroyed who would want to come to visit our country,” he added.
Lamarn said that he took 20 tourist to the Similan National Park between March 29-April 2 but he did not know what types of tools they had taken on board because it was night.
“I saw the fishing tools later and told the tour guide that the tourists could not use them within the national park area.
“The tourists refused to listen to the guide and insisted they wanted to dive and fish so I took them out of the park area,” he said.