There are abundant reef limestone strata in the South China Sea. Coral reef strata have large primary pores， high compressibility， easy deformation and insufficient strength； so they are prone to filtration， breaking and collapsing. Drilling incidents， such as broken drilling string， hole caving， and bit burial， often happen during drilling on islands and reefs. In drilling marine reef limestone formations， it is not only necessary to overcome the problems encountered on land， but also to tackle the more complex marine environment. In order to solve the coring difficulty in special marine stratum， core drilling with the marine top double-drive linkage riser system was developed on the basis of the ship-borne riserless drilling system. Marine drilling test was carried out at four different stations in the Xisha waters， and the field tests show that this technology can take cores from offshore reef limestone with high efficiency and high recovery； and the coring footage up to 130.75m， which has a broad prospect for promotion.