Park Rangers Report DJ to Police for Fishing in National Park

Left, Poomjai “DJ Poom” Tangsanga holds a fish captured in Mu Koh Chumphon National Park, in a video he posted in August 2018. Right, a park ranger holds a printed screenshot of the video at the same spot in the park, in a photo posted on Aug. 13, 2019.
Left, Poomjai “DJ Poom” Tangsanga holds a fish captured in Mu Koh Chumphon National Park, in a video he posted in August 2018. Right, a park ranger holds a printed screenshot of the video at the same spot in the park, in a photo posted on Aug. 13, 2019.

CHUMPHON — Police are awaiting additional evidence Wednesday from park officials who reported a DJ for fishing in a national park.

Park rangers on Tuesday filed various police complaints against Poomjai “DJ Poom” Tangsanga, 40, for alleged charges involving unauthorized fishing and boating in Mu Koh Chumphon National Park.

“National park officials will come this afternoon to give us more evidence about the case,” Police Lt. Col. Dejbundit Dunpelee of Pak Nam Chumphon Provincial Police Station said by phone Wednesday. “After that, we will issue summons.”

Last year on Aug. 8, DJ Poom posted a video showing himself and six other people fishing from a speedboat and cooking fish to his YouTube channel, before erasing it in July this year.

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The Phaya Suea Ranger Facebook page, which announced that rangers went to the police over the video on Tuesday, shows screenshots of DJ Poom’s erased video next to photos of the rangers in the same spots visited by DJ Poom.

Dejbundit said the summons would be for all seven people featured on the speedboat, not just DJ Poom.

Photo: DJPoom / Instagram
Photo: DJPoom / Instagram

The rangers said they identified the islands DJ Poom was sailing near in the video as Koh Rad, Koh Kaloke, Koh Lakngam, and Koh Lawa, which are all within Mu Koh Chumphon National Park.

The complaints cover unauthorized fishing in a national park (punishable by five years in jail and a 20,000 baht fine) and bringing a vehicle, in this case a boat, into a national park without permission (punishable by a month in jail and a 1,000 baht fine). The rangers also said DJ Poom brought in fishing equipment into the park without permission and broke national park rules, offenses punishable by a 500 baht fine respectively.

DJ Poom has since apologized via an Instagram video and said he will cooperate with the authorities.

“We’re taking action. This is very serious … I feel very bad. Our [Youtube] show is about finding raw materials, fishing, as well as environmentalism,” DJ Poom said. “On the show we’re always complimenting the Department of Fisheries. This is a big mistake … I apologize for disappointing everyone.”

“This is a great lesson for me. In the future I will be very careful and make sure nothing illegal happens on the show again,” he continued

The speedboat, named T.Thanit, is registered under the name of Cholteerapong Anantayothin in Pathum Thani, according to the rangers.

This isn’t DJ Poom’s first fish rodeo. In 2015, he was slammed for posting videos of himself feeding fish at a coral reef at Koh Samui in Surat Thani.

Nature photographer and environmentalist Sirachai “Shin” Arunrugstichai, who got in an online tiff with DJ Poom over the videos, told Khaosod English that DJ Poom “didn’t admit he was wrong and even posted that he was an expert in environmentalism.”

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DJ Poom came to fame for his role as a DJ on Virgin Hits radio and as a VJ on MTV Thailand during the noughties.

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