Several of the boaters seen in a viral video dumping trash into the ocean off the Florida coast have been identified, authorities said.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Chair Rodney Barreto told NBC’s “TODAY” show that the video “has become a worldwide story. I mean, the world is watching this.”
Officials did not publicly identify the people they said were involved.
The wildlife agency said it is working with the state attorney’s office to “identify appropriate charges” in the incident, which happened Sunday at the Boca Inlet.
FWC spokesperson Tyson Matthews encouraged any individuals who were involved to contact the agency.
The video, which was posted on YouTube by content creator Wavy Boats, shows two people each dumping a trash bin full of garbage into the sea.
The boaters in the video attended the annual Boca Bash, according to its organizers, who said they are working to identify those in the video.
“We cannot be more angered and disturbed by these actions,” the Boca Bash said in a statement on its Facebook page. “Once the video was posted we quickly got to work with the community to discover who the owner of the boat was and who was on the vessel in this particular instance committing an egregious act. Several people that helped in identifying them had already contacted authorities to handle the situation.”
Organizers also said they would like to see the boaters involved face “repercussions”:
“We do not condone this behavior by any means and are appalled that the passengers even had the audacity to clap at the drone that was filming them dumping their garbage. We hope the repercussions handed down can be viewed publicly as a warning of how important our waters are to us native Floridians.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
