[Captain Rich]

We had an incident at our dock about 3 years ago, a young man got off of a scallop boat down the street and the captain had given him a bag of scallops as partial wages. He went from dock to dock selling the scallops so he could get a hot meal and a carton of cigarettes before he sailed again. The CO's found out, tailed him from the street, and after everything was finished they bagged him AND contacted all the captains he had been in contact with. If the captains weren't on their boats, they were called at their business numbers (remember all the dock signs with phone numbers ?? so did the CO's). The captains were threatened with fines, loss of federal permits, loss of captains license, real strong arm tactics. This was all over buying a pound of scallops from a kid who wanted to work and needed a hot meal! One of my neighbors threatened to return the scallops to the CO after he finished digesting them! The BS went on for a couple of days. So the short answer is no, it's illegal, but there are still people who need and want to work for a living and will do it if they can get away with it.