Thugs who were videoed 'cannonballing' manatees face up to a YEAR in jail after they admitted attacking endangered animals

Manatees are endangered animals and protected by the endangered species act

Blake Martin and Seth Andrew Stephenson were caught after they posted a video of their stunt on the Internet

Manatees are mammals that eat primarily sea grass and other aquatic plants

They are large, aquatic relatives of elephants

Two Florida men who recorded video of themselves luring a pair manatees in a canal near Cape Canaveral to a dock so they could 'cannonball' the animals pleaded guilty Thursday to federal endangered species charges.

The 'cannonballing' occurred in March of 2012, and video of the men luring the animals to the dock along the Cocoa Beach canal so one of them could jump on the manatees was posted on the Internet, which is how authorities learned of the incident.



The two men - Taylor Blake Martin and Seth Andrew Stephenson - each pleaded guilty to one federal misdemeanor charge.

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Cruel: Two Florida men face a year in prison after pleading guilty to luring manatees with a hose so one could jump on them

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The 50-second video shows Stephenson using a freshwater hose to lure the adult manatee and a calf over to a dock. The man behind the camera then encourages Martin to jump on them.

Martin then jumps right on the backs of the endangered animals as his friends cheer him on.

The video was then posted on Facebook, where it was discovered by a local news outlet, which broadcasted it on television.

When authorities saw the video, they quickly identified the men responsible for it began developing a case against them.

Authorities investigating the incident found a comment posted on the video that was credited to Martin's Facebook account.

Splash: Taylor Martin faces up to a year in jail for 'cannonballing' an endangered manatee

Gentle giants: Manatees are mammals who typically eat sea grass and freshwater vegetation. They are large, aquatic relatives of elephants

The poorly written post read 'in my debue [sic] as tayla the manatee slaya … and im [expletive] ready to cannonball on every manatee liveing [sic].'

Manatees are protected by the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act, which makes it illegal to injure, harm, capture or attempt to capture a manatee in Florida.

The enormous, friendly mammals are also called sea cows. As Florida's inlets and coastal canals have become more populated with power boats, manatees - which often swim near the surface of the water - have been the unintended victims of countless run-ins with propellers of power boats, which has led to their inclusion on the endangered species list.