[1] A gift box containing 15 seashells, and delivered to 18-year-old Benjamín Sisterna from his brother in 1932, created a lifelong fascination with sea shells and oceanography in the young man.

Twenty-six trips around the world in sixty years resulted in a personal collection of over 30,000 shells, fossils and marine invertebrates, among other items.

Sisterna's death in 1995 left the collection to his heirs, who began work on the Museo del Mar, The Museum of the Sea, in Mar del Plata.

Born in Santa Fe, Argentina, a city far from the Atlantic Ocean, Sisterna had lived in seaside mar del Plata for the last 40 years of his life.

[3] One of its founders is Guibert Englebienne Jr, an entrepreneur born in Mar del Plata and whose family has deep roots in the city.