A team from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) inspected floating restaurants in Phuket yesterday (Mar 11) to check whether they had protected marine life is there possession as had been shown in social media clips.
The inspection revealed that two venues indeed had ornamental fish which could not be caught legally.
At one of the unnamed floating restaurants officials found captured butterflyfish, lionfish, orange-lined triggerfish and moray eels (11 in total).
The other venue was found in possession of moorish idols, lionfish and dog-faced puffer (four in total).
People in charge of the restaurants were taken to Karon Police Station for legal processing.
In November last year, managers of three seafood restaurants in Karon were arrested for illegally selling baby parrotfish for consumption. Unlike in the current case, the three restaurants were named that time. They were Chic Restaurant, Bounty Seafood, and Ton Tan Seafood.