A video showing a man throwing furniture from a cruise ship into the sea was uploaded to the social networking site TikTok last week, from where it has been widely shared across other social media platforms.
The video was, for example, shared to the discussion website Reddit with the caption "idiots on a cruise ferry". In the background the rest of the party can be heard laughing and filming the man throwing the furniture.
Media outlets have identified the group as being at least partly comprised of workers from a construction company based in the Pirkanmaa region, and that the man throwing the furniture into the Baltic Sea is the company's managing director.
The 25-year-old refused to comment on the video when contacted by Yle, but he did give an interview to the Valavuori Live programme — hosted by Aleksi Valavuori — which was streamed live online.
He told the programme that he had been drinking for 12 hours and had "all sorts of notions", and confirmed that he himself uploaded the video to TikTok.
The video has since been removed, but the man told Valavuori that he was surprised the video had gone viral and made news headlines.
"There was no intention to cause such a mess," he said.
Invoice and a one-year ban
The video was filmed in the suite of Tallink Silja's M/S Baltic Princess ship just over a week ago.
Marika Nöjd, the communications director with Tallink Silja, told Yle that the company has had to replace the furniture that was thrown into the sea — which cost about 1,000 euros and will be passed on to the passengers responsible.
In addition to throwing furniture, Nöjd said that the same group had caused trouble elsewhere on board, including one member of the party urinating on the stones of a sauna.
The incident occurred during the height of the Christmas party season, but Nöjd did not wish to comment on whether this period sees an increase in rowdy behaviour among passengers.
"I can't say whether such incidents have anything to do with Christmas," she said.
In addition to the invoice for the furniture, the group has been banned from travelling on all Tallink Silja ships for at least one year. Tallink Silja is also considering whether to file a criminal complaint with police over the incident.
Furniture littering the sea
Nöjd added that items are thrown overboard by passengers from time to time, but rarely — if ever — in such large quantities as in this incident.
"Of course, from an environmental point of view, anything that gets thrown overboard is wrong," Nöjd said.
The construction company CEO told the Valavuori Live show that he regretted the incident, and that his company would be making a donation towards the protection of the Baltic Sea.
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