BOCA RATON, FLA. (WSVN) - One day after a video went viral showing a group of teens dumping trash just off the Boca Inlet, the public has responded with outrage.
“It’s shocking, disheartening, a lot of anger, and honestly, the thing that was most shocking to me is the age of the people on the boat,” said Madeline Kaufman of Debris Free Ocean.
The video, captured by the YouTube account Wavy Boats, drew tens of thousands of people on social media to react to the video.
In the video, the group of people dump two garbage cans filled with trash into the ocean and then celebrate the move.
The boat was on its way out of the Boca Raton Inlet on Sunday right as the 2024 Boca Bash, the annual boat party on Lake Boca that takes place the last Sunday of April, was wrapping up.
“They just take huge garbage trucks worth of trash and dump them right into our waterways that are already facing so many issues,” said Kaufman. “I’m a marine biologist by trade, and so just seeing someone do that is just so disheartening and then they go on to celebrate and look at the cameras that are filming them and make some gestures showing that they’re proud of what they did.”
The drone video captures the boat leaving the Boca Inlet, dumping their trash, and then returning to the event. The garbage that was left behind was also captured on camera.
Even though the group of teens cheered when they saw the camera, they didn’t see the potential harm their actions will cause.
“They just dumped lots of cans, bottles, and plastic cups into our ocean where we already have thousands of pounds of marine debris floating around and can impact hundreds of species. They can consume these items and a lot of times, they can’t digest them,” said Kaufman. “Smaller animals can get stuck within bottles and cans and end up dying.”
The boat, Halcyon, out of Gulfstream, is registered to an LLC, Trysail Holdings.
7News appeared at the owner’s home on Tuesday but the owner did not want to comment.
All the teens have been identified as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was notified of an incident involving illegal trash dumping on Sunday at Boca Inlet. This investigation is ongoing and several subjects have been identified. FWC Investigators are working closely with the State Attorney’s Office to identify appropriate charges for this incident. If you were involved in this incident and would like to come forward, please contact the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922.
FWC
In a statement, Boca Bash said they’ve identified the group on the boat that dumped the garbage into the ocean and called the actions on the video “egregious” and “completely unacceptable.” They added that “it is irresponsible boaters like this that have zero care for our oceans that give this event a bad reputation.”
Kaufman said she hopes the fallout prevents another dumping in the ocean from happening again.
“I hope that this public outrage can prevent something like that from ever happening again down here,” said Kaufman.
FWC has not release the name or ages of the boaters on video who dumped the trash.