This study aimed to assess the transmission and communication characteristics of an helical Ince-Gaussian (HIG) beams in ocean turbulence channels. First, the relationship between the transmission performance (intensity distribution, phase distribution, scintillation index, centroid drift, and overlap) and the transmission distances of an HIG beams passing through ocean turbulence was simulated based on the random phase screens and the power spectrum inversion method. Next, communication bit error rate was analyzed based on the log-normal intensity probability density function. Further, the performance of the HIG beams under different beam parameters (ellipticity, order, and degree) was analyzed and optimized to achieve optimal transmission and communication performance. The simulation results revealed that the HIG beams exhibit better anti-turbulence ability at different distances compared to the Gaussian beam. In a 100 m ocean turbulence channel (ε = 10^-5 m²∕s³, X_T = 10^-5 K²∕s, ω = -0.15, η = 10^-3 m, L₀ = 10 m), the scintillation index, the centroid drift and the bit error rate were reduced by 58%, 53%, and 3 orders of magnitude, respectively. Further, the transmission and communication performance of the HIG beams decreased with the increase in turbulence intensity, and the performance improvement ability of the HIG beams also decreased compared with the Gaussian beam. The bit error rate improved by about 4 orders of magnitude under relatively weak turbulence, while it improved by about 1 order of magnitude under relatively strong turbulence. When the outer scale of ocean turbulence increased, the centroid drift of the HIG beams increased slightly, while the other parameters were almost unaffected. After optimization, ellipticity, order, and degree can improve the communication and transmission performance of HIG beams,and the order is the most sensitive parameter. The simulation results may provide a theoretical basis and a technical reference for the application of HIG beams in underwater optical communications.