Since the Edo period, Atsukishi-cho has prospered from herring and salmon and trout fishing, and people have lived their lives through their relationship with the sea, including plentiful catches of Pacific saury and whaling. Even today, the town enjoys the bounty of the sea, including saury, oysters, salmon and trout, clams, and kelp. The museum was opened on October 1, 1988, in front of the Atsukishi Town Hall building as a facility to exhibit the close relationship between the sea and the people of the town.
It also has a planetarium on the second floor, the easternmost in Japan, and is used as a learning facility to encourage children's interest in space.