This article displays a history of the relationship between Western science and the maritime aquatic environment from the Renaissance onwards. It begins by examining the obstacles, real and imagined, to the study of the sea in both physical geography and natural history. From the early eighteenth century, naturalistic studies of aquatic organisms and marine geography began to transform the relationship between scientists and the sea, which had become more empirical. However, the shift to marine zoology was due to the Trembley effect, with the general interest aroused by phenomena related to the regeneration of the Hydra. In this context, we also reconstruct the first evolutionary works related to the history of the sea.