The Southeast Fisheries Science Center conducts multi-disciplinary research programs to provide management information to support national and regionalprograms of NMFS; and to respond to the needs of Regional Fishery Management Councils, Interstate and International Fishery Commission, Fishery Development Foundations, government agencies, and the general public. The Center provides supervisory and administrative support to large marine ecosystems programs performing fishery research, collecting and reporting on statistical data and controlling and operating Center data management support systems. It develops the scientific information base required for fishery resource conservation, fishery development and utilization, habitat conservation, and protection of marine mammals and endangered species, the impact analyses and environmental assessments for management plans and/or international negotiations; and pursues research to answer specific needs in the subject areas of population dynamics, fishery biology, fishery economics, fishery engineering, food science, and fishery biology.

The SEFSC Directorate and Miami Laboratory are co-located at the Miami facility (53,006 sq ft). A three-story main building structure provides office, laboratory, conference room, library, computer, and special purpose space. A second building has a large conference room and houses the fishery statistics program.

Also part of the SEFSC are the following four laboratories: the Galveston (Texas), Panama City (Florida), labs. These laboratories are also members of SAML.

The Miami facility is located on five acres of federally owned property on Virginia Key adjacent to Bear Cut and Biscayne Bay.