The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office in Norfolk is located at Nauticus, The National Maritime Center—a maritime-themed science and education center that attracts more than 350,000 visitors a year with special programs and exhibits focused on exploring the power of the sea. NOAA@Nauticus is a partnership between NOAA and Nauticus to promote scientific and environmental literacy and to inform the public about NOAA's programs and activities.

The NOAA Education Resource Center at Nauticus, which opened in June 2005, provides educators with curricula, fact sheets, multimedia, and other tools that facilitate instruction of science disciplines (including weather, oceanography, and Chesapeake Bay ecology). NOAA regularly updates the resources and responds to educators' requests. The Center, which is open whenever Nauticus is open, also stocks current NOAA program and office information for the general public. NOAA also partners with Nauticus on a variety of education and outreach efforts, including the Blue Planet Forum lecture series and educational workshops.

In the exhibit spaces at Nauticus, "The Living Shoreline" includes a 1,000-gallon aquarium tank filled with Chesapeake Bay species and a depiction of four ecological zones of the Bay watershed—uplands, tidal marshes, underwater grasses, and oyster reefs. This exhibit also describes the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.