A tourist used a fish to lure a wild pelican close on a Key West dock, then leaped directly on top of it and into the water in a video that went viral.

Video that went viral around March 3, 2019, showed a man on a dock at the Key West Historic Seaport luring a wild pelican closer with a fish, then leaping on top of the bird and into the water with it, surfacing with the pelican in both hands. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission identified the man as William Hunter Hardesty, 31, of Riva, Maryland, and issued a warrant charging him with animal cruelty and the intentional feeding of pelicans. Maryland State Police caught up with Hardesty after a tip that he was staying at a hotel in Ocean City, Maryland, and had been bragging to people there about being wanted for feeding and tackling a pelican in the Florida Keys. He was arrested at the hotel on March 15, 2019, and later found guilty in Monroe County Court on four charges, including two counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and two counts of animal cruelty, and was sentenced to 90 days in the Monroe County Detention Center.