2 teens turn themselves in after viral video shows buckets of trash being dumped in ocean
MIAMI - Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said Friday that two teens had turned themselves into authorities after a video went viral showing the dumping of trash into the Boca Inlet on Sunday.
Officials said the teens will face the consequences for violating the laws related to polluting the waters of the state of Florida.
The video shows the jaw-dropping moment when people on a boat begin dumping buckets of trash into the ocean.
The video also shows an aerial shot of all the garbage in the water.
Then, we see some of the guys on board cheering. People on social media are calling the culprits "scumbags" another saying, "I want to see the second part of the story where they go to jail and pay the fines." Another one said, "Throw them in prison for 20 years."
"The illegal dumping of trash in our marine environment is a serious crime, and we worked closely with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office to determine appropriate charges. Callous disregard for Florida's environment will not be tolerated. This is a teaching moment for all those involved-Florida's natural resources are precious, and we should all do our part to protect them," said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto.
"The negative impact this type of deliberate pollution has on our beaches, reef system, and estuaries cannot be understated," said Major Dustin Bonds, South Alpha Regional Commander. "This type of criminal activity harms our wildlife and undermines the investment made by the people of Florida to keep our unique ecosystem healthy." The public can report suspected fishing, wildlife, or boating violations by contacting FWC through the Wildlife Alert
We showed the video to people at Haulover Marina.
"Oh my God, that's insane. This is not right," said Isabelle Dupy She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Everybody's recycling, everybody's trying to have a better planet, clean planet and look what's happening. It's terrible," she said.
Pamela Villafuerte and Natheer Gregory were shocked.
"They don't really respect. They just threw it in there without a care in the world," Villafuerte said.
"They should be fined. There should be, I'm not trying to put anyone in jail, but at least a couple months in jail or something like that," Gregory added.
Claire Paris is a professor of Ocean Sciences at U-M's Rosenstiel School. As she watched the video of the trash dump, she thought about sea animals that feed near the surface.
"From what I've seen on the video is like some little pieces that could be mistaken by for food, especially when you have a lot of waves, and the fish is not very much seeing what is at the surface, just grabbing things," she noted.
