The Department of Thermohydromechanics of the Ocean was founded in 1967 by a prominent scientist and teacher, DSc (Physical and Mathematical Sciences), Professor Sergey Sergeevich Voit (1920 - 1987), who was its permanent director for 20 years. The active development of oceanology required specialists with special training. And this was well understood by the director of the Institute of Oceanology, Academician Andrei Sergeevich Monin, who had taught at the department for many years and was the initiator of its creation.

The Department of Oceanology at the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University was organized on the initiative of Professor N.N. Zubov. The first graduation of students-oceanologists took place in the spring of 1953. At the same time, a new department of oceanology was introduced into the structure of the Faculty of Geography. This event coincided with the move of the natural faculties of Moscow State University to new premises built on the Sparrow (in those years - Lenin) mountains.

The Department of Ocean Geography was established in 1971 at Kaliningrad State University on the initiative of the famous polar explorer, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor M.M. Ermolaev. In April 2013, thanks to a joint initiative of the Kant Baltic Federal University and the Atlantic Branch of the IO RAS (AB IO RAS), the department acquired the status of a basic university department at the academic research institute (cooperation agreement dated 04.04.2013).