FAU Harbor Branch Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

Fantastic experience: If you happen to be in the Fort Pierce area including Port St Lucie and have an interest in marine. or birdlife, check out this activity. It is sponsored by Florida Atlantic University and this little gem is tucked away at thier reseach facility in Harbor Branch. Our guide Sam had a masters degree in marine biology and was a funny and knowledgeable person. She was part of a 4 person crew that takes you out on the lagoon for an hour and a half cruise. The large pontoon boat is covered and bug spray wasn’t necessary. They have tablets behind the seats that she uses to educate and show pictures of wildlife (including a small ROV) and even a hydrophone to hear porpoise. There was only one other person from out of state so I suspect this is not well known out of the local area. There are about 4or five steps down to the boat with a handrail. I believe it is only offered on Saturdays.

Fantastic experience: We have gone by Harbor Branch many times by boat and never once visited until today. The Boat Tour was amazing and our Tour Guide, Sam, was phenomenal. The best compliment is when my teen son said to me, “you can tell she really loves her job.”

Fantastic experience: It's very informative and the staff is very nice and friendly. They have tram and boat tours too. DONATION : $5

Fantastic experience: Sam was an amazing tour guide! Very informative and fun. Super cool seeing up close wildlife and the use of scientific technologies in the marine field!

Fantastic experience: Had a great time today on the boat tour. Sam was a great tour guide! Highly recommend doing this if you’re in Fort Pierce, Vero Beach or surrounding towns. Definitely worth it!

Fantastic experience: Great tour, wonderful narrator! Highly recommend!

Fantastic experience: Fantastic pontoon tour of lagoon at FAU led by informative graduate Sam. Highly recommend it! We saw dolphin, baby manatee and sea birds and learned interesting facts about the lagoon. Also learned about left and right hand conch shells origin of “spoil” islands. Only $40 for 90 minute tour.

Fantastic experience: This eco pontoon tour was a real treat for my high schooler and me! Our tour guide Sam was the real deal — very knowledgeable but also explained all the science really well and patiently answered our questions. The underwater drone was so cute! And we felt lucky to see dolphins and a great variety of birds in their natural habitat. I was also impressed with the quality of the exhibits in the discovery center, and it was small enough to go through quickly. We did the pontoon tour then sandwiches and then the discovery center, but other passengers from our pontoon tour were in and out of the discovery center before we had finished our sandwiches.

Negative experience: They stole the land from Indian River State college who took them in as a partnership... Fraudulent alternate University is nothing but a farce ...what they represent is a 7/50 plan which states all seven counties will be on public utilities before 2030 ... Thier plan is to force everybody on to public utilities while they dispute the septic tanks but they refuse to look at the deep injection wastewater sludge that they put into the aquifer... I have nothing to do with these people.....

Fantastic experience: Super cool tour! Very relaxing boat ride with lots of nature sightings: manatees, dolphins!, different birds and more. Very impressive technology with screens at every seat and an ROV underwater drone which allowed us to see under the water in high definition. Our tour guide Sam was very knowledgeable, friendly and entertaining!

Fantastic experience: Experienced this awesome 90 minute tour with our family, 2 visiting from NY. We’ve lived in Florida for many years and still learned a ton of information. Captain David and our volunteer Dave were both very professional and accommodating. Our tour guide Sam was simply a wealth of information and thoroughly enjoyed sharing it and absolutely loved the lagoon and everything about it. If you’ve not done this tour, we can highly recommend it. Good for any ages and the boat had a roof so your out of the sun.

Fantastic experience: Sam was an amazing tour guide! The tour was extremely fun and enjoyable. Would definitely recommend.

Fantastic experience: Great boat tour and fabulous guide explaining research in the lagoon. Bring your guests.

Fantastic experience: Samantha McGuire and Captain Dave were both excellent the whole tour was amazing

Fantastic experience: What a fabulous tour and educational journey out on the Indian River Lagoon! Sam is so knowledgeable and fun to learn from. Hands on demos and lots of great wildlife views!

Fantastic experience: Wonderful, interesting boat tour. Friendly, well informed. Sam David and Larry were so pleasant and we learned a lot from them. Will be back when my family visits. Thank you!

Fantastic experience: Wonderful tour! Saw lots of dolphins and a manatee and learned a lot about the Indian River lagoon and the flora and fauna. Joey did a great job!

Fantastic experience: Great tour by Sam!! Very informational, fun and saw lots of wildlife… lots of birds and dolphins.

Fantastic experience: Perfect day for an FAU Harbor Branch boat tour. David (captain) did a great job explaining safety protocol and navigating through the channel and out to the lagoon. Sam was an excellent guide who gave us a wealth of information about the various species of wildlife we encountered (including a playful pair of dolphins!). Everything about the tour was amazing! Well done-and worth every penny!!

Fantastic experience: A great place to visit. Saw and learned about sea life and the research that is going on. Saw a Manatee and a Dolphins swimming in the bay.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely fun place especially for the kids

Fantastic experience: Excellent tour. Very informative and just the right length. Staff is friendly and knows a lot about the facility. Accommodations are great. Hope to be back soon for lecture series.

Fantastic experience: Great place to stop and be educated about the area we live in and wonderful volunteers

Fantastic experience: The visitor's center is free, clean and self guided. Lots of displays about the ocean, tools that FAU uses in their research and a short film. Small gift shop on premises. FAU also conducts tours on the main campus that is appointment only. I have not done the tour but plan on it in the future.

Fantastic experience: We enjoyed the tour of the Harbor Branch campus. It was a 2 hour tour and worth every minute. Highly recommended!

Fantastic experience: 13, 10 and 8 year old grandsons were totally absorbed with the Discovery Center's learning while enjoying the "Hunt".

Fantastic experience: Great little free museum with additional fun and informative tours Tuesday-Saturday 10:30-noon. Tours cost extra but you see a lot of stuff and get a lot of cool information!

Fantastic experience: Last minute idea, turned into a great day. Lucky to get an open spot on the guided tour. Totally worth it. So much information. Amazing how much important research is happening right in my own backyard! Will definitely go again.

Fantastic experience: Great place. Take the kids!

Fantastic experience: A great little detour to add in with other stops in the area, the Ocean Discovery Center is an enlightening display of the University's efforts in the area. Free to the public (donations suggested), the Center provides an introduction to the prevalent species of the IRL and the challenges that they currently face. The displays and aquariums provide a nice 60 - 90 minute reprieve from the road, and the Center is excellently paired with the DJ Wilcox Preserve located nearby.

Fantastic experience: Free to go. 45 min guided tour. Touch tanks. Explains what Harbor Branch is doing. Awesome place for knowledge.

Fantastic experience: The free guided tour, normally about 40 mins is excellent. Skyler Klingshirn was my brilliant guide on 6th February 2020!

Fantastic experience: I'd go again alot of tours during the week alot of information on the river.

Fantastic experience: Every one should come out and support there work and inform themselves of what they do!. Great little stop.!

Fantastic experience: Very informative! Wonderful work being done here to protect our ecosystem. Don't miss this!

Fantastic experience: Great place to go and learn important information. The displays and your was wonderful.

Fantastic experience: A guided tour of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute was fantastic. Very informative and enjoyable. Our tour guide, Marisa Pico, a marine biologist who is specializing in turtles, was very personable and answered all our questions - using words, thankfully, that we non-scientists could understand. Thank you, Marisa.

Fantastic experience: Where I take my plastic wraps, bags and things city doesn't recycle

Fantastic experience: Great information from the tour that helped me understand and appreciate everything they're doing for the local ecosystem.

Fantastic experience: If you're interested in what's going on at Harbor Branch, you'll find this tour incredibly interesting and informative. The tour guides are great!

Positive experience: Very nice and informative. The staff are very helpful and know theit stuff. The immersion tour is very fun, just make sure you wear comfy shoes and bring sunscreen and bug spray!

Fantastic experience: We had the most wonderful time learning with our entire family ranging from all ages. Super fun tour guide named andrew! Adorable gift shop very reasonable prices and admission is FREE!!!! Can't beat it. Our family will definitely come back again to see what new research they've come across!

Fantastic experience: Very informative, exciting things going on here.

Fantastic experience: I highly recommend you visit and take the family.

Fantastic experience: The tour took about an hour and we learned very much!

Fantastic experience: Must see for locals and out of town folks

Fantastic experience: Awesome research facility and school.

Fantastic experience: Great Lectures and research PowerPoint Presentations

Fantastic experience: Took 4 young people ages 18,17,9 & 5. Everyone had a great time and learned quite a bit about ocean life. The guide was knowledgeable and patient with all our questions. Perfect for all ages. No one was bored!!!

Fantastic experience: Harbor branch's just a really cool place to go and learn about a lot of different stuff in the oceans in the surrounding waters here they're very knowledgeable and you will have a great time bring your family bring your friends and stop by the Harbor branch oceanographic Institute You will definitely leave they're smarter than when you arrived.

Fantastic experience: The tour guide was very good at explaining everything. Very interesting place and educational.Great price- free!!!

Fantastic experience: I love this place so much. I went there for a college summer program called H2O To Go! and it was amazing. Our tour guide was Brandon and he knew every single aspect of the facility and exactly what it did. It was fascinating and I recommend it to anyone who has a passion for marine life and technology :)

Fantastic experience: Fun and informative. Learn about local animal rescues, marine life, aquaculture and the Indian River Lagoon. Just the right amount of time, free to the public but please donate or purchase a souvenir.

Fantastic experience: Neat campus and the Ocean discovery center is definitely worth checking out.

Fantastic experience: Very cool and informative place. Something for everyone, adults and kids too.

Fantastic experience: As someone who has always been interested in the marine environment, I was amazed to hear about all of the different research being conducted here at Harbor Branch. The Visitors Center is focused entirely on explaining the all of the work that the scientists are doing at this amazing institute. The best part of this experience is the guided tour of the exhibits. A graduate student at the university is responsible for walking the guests through center and interpreting the information as well as answering all questions. My favorite exhibit was probably the aquaculture pavilion which showcased their Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture system (IMTA). This system allowed redfish, sea asparagus, sea purselane, red mangroves, algae and sea urchins to all grow in the same body of water! As an aquarium hobbyist this system was very exciting to me! I would recommend this experience to anyone who is interested in science, research and the marine environment (especially the Indian River Lagoon). Also if you get the chance to go on the Immersion Tour of campus, take it. The campus is beautiful and is a great opportunity to see a historic and very influential institution.