Eyeball to eyeball, the judge looked at the youngster standing before him in juvenile court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The kid had done wrong, and the normal procedure would be to send him to a juvenile detention facility. Instead, the judge took a chance. He called a marine biologist friend and asked him to take the kid out on his research boat and put him to work. A month later, the friend called back asking for eight more kids. From that simple beginning in 1968, Associated Marine Institutes began.