A total of 1779 articles published in the CNKI and CSSCI databases between 1980 and 2017 were analyzed using the bibiometric analysis and the tools document visualization methods. Information mining was used to investigate the research results associated with marine ecological economy. The knowledge map of research hot spots, core author groups, major research institutions, and important academic journals was drawn using the visual results. The results indicated that, (1) studies on marine ecological economy began in 1982, and the number of papers published surged in 2009, which meant that it had become an important field of research; (2) Di Qianbin, Gao Qiang, Yin Kedong, and other authors have performed extensive research on marine ecological economy. The Ocean University of China, State Oceanic Administration, and Liaoning Normal University were the major research institutions. Cooperation between research institutions was mainly based on departmental and geographical connections. However, cross-regional and interdisciplinary cooperation needs to be enhanced; (3) results of marine ecological-economy research suggest that "blue economy," "coordination of marine ecosystems," and "human and sea sustainable development" are important areas of research; finally, (4) the comprehensiveness of marine ecological-economic research has been continuously enhanced. The results also suggest that the journal "Ocean Development and Management" has published the most number of papers on marine ecological-economic research..