the institute operates on a campus at (31.9885476, -81.0212228) surrounded by another of salt marsh. it has ten faculty with research interests ranging from nutrients and pollutants of the salt marshes and estuaries, to the movements of water masses between the coast and gulf stream, to the ecology of plankton and microbes of the open ocean. much of the institute's research since its inception has focused on the southeastern u.s. continental shelf, the influences of land, open ocean, and atmosphere on the continental shelf, and other continental shelf environments worldwide.