The decision to establish the Sevastopol Biological Station (SBS) to study the flora and fauna of the Black Sea was made in 1869 in Moscow at the II Congress of Naturalists and Doctors. It was opened two years later, in 1871.

The first director of the SBS (1889-1901) was the outstanding Russian biologist-evolutionist, founder of comparative embryology and physiology A.O. Kovalevsky; on his initiative in 1891 the SBS was transferred to the Academy of Sciences, which expanded the possibilities of scientific research. In 1897, the SBS moved to a building specially constructed for it; later, the first public marine aquarium in the Russian Empire was opened in its basement.