The work aims to review the research status of degradable materials (photodegradable materials, biodegradable materials and photo-biodegradable materials), and discusses the research progress and future research direction of degradable materials in the marine field. The characteristics, applications and degradation mechanisms of various degradable materials were reviewed. The feasibility of degradation of degradable materials in seawater and the corresponding modification methods were discussed from the perspective of degradation mechanism.Due to the particularity of seawater environment, the degradation performance of various degradable materials in seawater environment was greatly reduced. The degradation process was affected by many factors. In order to enable the materials to degrade in seawater environment, suggestions on the modification of degradable materials were put forward. Although degradable materials are currently a research hotspot in the field of materials, their application in the marine field is still in its infancy. Therefore, the development of degradable materials with good water degradation performance is the key point to solve the problem of marine pollution, as well as the difficulty and hotspot of future research.