An intelligent sea water cooling system including a first fluid cooling loop coupled to a heat exchanger, a second fluid cooling loop coupled to the heat exchanger and including a fluid pump for circulating fluid through the second fluid cooling loop, and a controller operatively connected to the fluid pump. The controller may be configured to monitor an actual temperature in the first fluid cooling loop and to adjust a speed of the fluid pump based on the monitored temperature in order to achieve a desired temperature in the first fluid cooling loop.