Just a few minutes from campus, where Crane Creek meets the Indian River Lagoon near downtown Melbourne, the Ralph S. Evinrude Marine Operations Center houses small outboard-powered craft and medium-sized workboats. These vessels are available to students and faculty for teaching and research in the freshwater tributaries and the Indian River Lagoon.

The Mertens Marine Center, a 3,000-square-foot, $1.25 million building, features two laboratory a conference room, and two faculty offices. The building serves as a base of operations for research and student training in the marine sciences and ocean engineering. Graduate and undergraduate students conduct research on environmental science and restoration. Research for master's theses and doctoral dissertations, as well as undergraduate senior-design projects, are carried out in the Center. 

Research projects cover a broad range of topics in science and engineering, including studies of invasive species, living shorelines, plastics pollution, eutrophication, submersible vehicles, energy generation, population biology, harmful algal blooms, oyster restoration, sediment geochemistry, nutrient flux, bathymetry, dredging techniques and restoration efforts.

Coastal and oceanographic research and teaching on ocean-going vessels are conducted through membership in the Florida Institute of Oceanography in St. Petersburg, as well as through strategic partnerships with the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Ft. Pierce, and other institutions.