The space remote sensing and information technique have become a necessary tool to observe the different scale, different layer and continuous dynamical phenomenon of oceanic resources and environment. The marine remote sensing has more advantage than the normal investigation in the collection of marine environment parameters of several yeas, even several ten years. In the 1970s the international scientists began the real time detection of oceanic environment by means of water leaving radiance measurement from satellite. China has paid great attention and has made great progress in this field since the 1980s. This paper, first, reviews the development of marine optical remote sensing in China over the last 20 years. Secondly, the neads of this technique in national rights and interests, preventing and reducing natural calamities and management and development of marine resources are discussed. Finally, the key technique and frontiers of the application of marine optical remote sensing in the monitoring of marine environment are expounded, such as marine satellite operational monitoring system, accuracy analysis and quantitization, high frequency and long term monitor data collection, the combination application of multi sensor and key technique, etc.