A viral video that appears to show a shark being dragged behind a speedboat has prompted an online petition calling for those responsible to face community service.
In the video a group of young men point and laugh as the shark is apparently pulled at high speed, attached to the boat by some kind of rope tied around its tail fins.
The details are difficult to make out, but the shark seems to have a dark grey body, a white belly and a dorsal fin.
There appear to be four people on the boat watching the shark thrashing about on top of the water, including the person filming.
The video, which first surfaced on YouTube and Instagram on Monday (local time), was reported to local fishing authorities, according to the New York Times.
Miami charter operator Mark "The Shark" Quartiano shared the clip with his 79,000 Instagram followers.
"Can someone please tell me WTF is going on here? Just got this on my feed…" he wrote.
More than 3,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the people on board the boat to be given 1,000 hours of community service as punishment.
A statement attributed to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) on Wednesday said that it was too early to determine whether the people in the video had violated any local laws or regulations.
The ABC has approached the FFWCC for comment.
