The article is devoted to the topical topic – the analysis of modern possibilities of carrying out complex expeditionary research in the coastal part of the Black Sea shelf with the use of the R/V Gidrobiolog of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. There are specially designed and developed scientific equipment of the complex of ship’s modular research laboratories – Hydroacoustics Laboratories, Marine Geology Laboratory, River Geology Laboratory. The resumption of scientific marine and river cruises is important not only for updating primary empirical data on the water environment of the coastal shelf and inland waterways of Ukraine, and will allow the joint efforts of the scientific community to be directed towards the monitoring of the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea.