absolutely.
and I'm nothing but a novice shutterbug myself. as a fisherman I highly recommend getting a waterproof camera for the simple and practical reason is that it is basically worry free. wether you take underwater photos or not you don't have to worry about getting the camera wet.

pentax wp series always seems to be highly recommended, though as they keep releasing new models they get pricier and pricier. nonetheless bargains can easily be found. olympus also makes a series of waterproof cameras - I have one of these and am fairly satisfied w/ the images I get, though it seems to me that the pentax gets better images. I bought the olympus because of price and easily purchased at big box electronic store. to get the pentax in my rather large town required ordering on-line.

but yes you can certainly get a decent compact camera in the price range you mentioned and these daze most models seem to be basically idiot proof.