Inherent optical properties are important marine optical parameters which are the basic input parameters of the radiative transfer model. Based on hyperspectral remote sensing reflectance and total absorption coefficient data measured in 2005 in the Bohai Sea, the nonlinear minimization model was firstly used to retrieve the inherent optical properties. The model was validated by in situ data. The averaged percent errors were 33.8%, 20.4%, 27.7%, 37.5%, 9.5% and 10.8% for the total absorption coefficients at 412, 440, 510, 555, 650 and 676 nm bands respectively. The main error sources of model were the uncertainty of the model parameters and measurement errors. According to the discussion, the spectral slope S has a slight influence on the retrieval of total absorption coefficients. However, the impact of the spectral power Y on the retrieval cannot be negligible. The model is suitable for hyperspectral data and can fulfill the gaps of inherent optical properties retrieval research in the Bohai Sea, so it can be used for hyperspectral remote sensing data to retrieve inherent optical properties.