For more than 45 years since its acquisition in 1972, the R/V Bellows has worked along the Florida estuaries and coastlines: securing her place in ocean science history in the 2005 expedition to Pulley Ridge, in which she is recognized for being the first vessel to discover the deepest reef powered by sunlight in the United States.
The 102 Ft. Research Vessel Suncoaster, a general purpose coastal ocean research ship supported university, state and federal scientific research programs from the Gulf of Maine through the Gulf of Mexico as far south as Grenada in the Caribbean Sea. Once a “drug boat”, the vessel was converted in 1981 to carry 12 scientists where it once held 40 tons of marijuana.