A new teaching tool is making waves at Monmouth University in Long Branch.

The university’s Urban Coast Institute was recently given “the Nauvoo” – a 49-foot-long research vessel.

The craft is able to take up to 20 students out to sea for education and research.

VIDEO: Interview with Urban Coast Institute Director Tony MacDonald

“We work on a variety of things. We have professors who are in fishery, so we work with endangered species…We don’t know a lot about their life cycles, where they are. We’re trying to understand that better, so we can go out to see to do some testing for that,” says institute director Tony MacDonald.

“The Nauvoo” was originally a U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender. It was then transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which gave it to the university for free.

State officials and NOAA representatives joined faculty and students for the vessel’s official unveiling.