To meet the environmental monitoring needs of marine ranching, a physical and chemical indicators and visual monitoring platform for sea cucumber bottom sowing culture environment was developed. By constructing the numerical model of the platform, the structural strength analysis of the platform is carried out. Based on the three-dimensional potential flow theory, the platform motion response model under the coupling condition of wind, wave, and current is established. The AQWA software is used to analyze the variation law of the maximum center of gravity amplitude, and the mooring system optimization is realized by optimizing the position of the guide hole and the length of the mooring line. The research shows that under the condition of ten-level wind and wave when the angles of wind, wave, and inflow are 90 °, 135 °, and 90 °, the motion range of the center of gravity of the platform reaches the maximum and is in the most dangerous state; when the position of the guide cable hole is reduced to 0.5 m underwater, the roll, pitch, and yaw amplitudes of the platform are reduced by 50.6 %, 61.7 % and 43.4 %, respectively. When the cable length is reduced to 70 m, these amplitudes are reduced by 28.4 %, 47.7 %, and 32 %, respectively. The mooring safety factor is 1.89, which meets the design requirements. To further demonstrate the accuracy of the numerical model of the platform, the motion response and mooring force of the platform were measured during the influence of typhoon ' Gaemi'. The test results show that under the coupling of wind, wave, and current, the maximum angles of roll, pitch, and yaw of the platform are − 4.829 °, − 0.934 °, and 0.610 °, respectively. The maximum measured angles at sea are − 6.399 °, − 1.329 °, and 0.774 °; the simulated and measured mooring force coefficients of the platform are 3.63 and 3.92, respectively, which are consistent with the lifting trend of the numerical simulation results. The motion response error is less than 2 °, which verifies the good safety of the platform. It provides theoretical and technical support for the development and application of marine ranching environmental monitoring platforms.