JoJo and other readers. I was in the commercial marine industry for 30+ years. Here are some facts.
1) You no longer need a FCC issued marine license. Anybody can walk into a West Marine and buy a marine VHF radio walk outside, go
onto your boat, and legally TX (Transmit).
2) It use to be that you could only TX on the water. If you were going to TX from a vehicle or a West Marine store you needed a land
marine VHF license. I do not know if you need one today or not, however I know of hundreds of people who have a marine VHF in
their vehicles who live along navigable waters. Most marina's use marine VHF radios in their building's and in their boat yard vehicles
and nobody has a land license.
3) Jackalope is 100% in just staying away from certain frequencies like:
A) 156.800 Mhz Channel 16 Coast Guard distress channel. The CG monitors this frequency 24/7 and take it VERY SERIOUSLY
B) 157.050 & 161.650 Mhz Channel 21. Coast Guard use only.
c) There are others but those are the biggies to stay away from.
4) IMO, if you are within 15-miles of navigable waters stay off of any channel/frequency that is designated for work or emergency's.
Here is a list of all of the marine VHF
channels. As you can see there is a bunch that are open to the public to use if you are <15-miles from navigable waters.
As a side note: Up at the redoubt when a guest comes and they plan on hiking, hunting, etc. we loan them a BaoFeng set at a marine VHF frequency. The closest navigable water (s) to us is Lake Cayuga which is 60+ miles north of us as the crow flies.
Last, the FCC for all intents and purposes does not exist anymore. It is a shell bureaucracy that only purpose anymore is just to issue amateur radio licenses. They do not track down pirate radio users or hams that do not TX properly - 7.200Mhz is a great example. Most of the folks who TX on this frequency are the bottom of the barrel. The Jerry Springer's of the air waves.
My point in writing the previous paragraph is to state, I AM NOT WORRIED OWNING AN ILLEGAL BAOFENG RADIO.
Peace.