In this paper we analyzed the localization error of near-field detection algorithm in the sea. The near-field detection algorithms using triangulation and wavefront curvature basically assume a signal in two dimension of bearing and range. But the assumption causes localization error because there is three dimension of bearing, range, and depth in the sea. Even through three dimensional effect is considered, the localization error is occurred if multipath propagation in the sea is ignored. To analyze the localization error in the sea, we simulate the near-field localization using acoustic propagation model and focused beamforming considering wavefront curvature. The simulation results indicate that localization error always occurs in the sea and the error varied with sound velocity profile, water depth, bottom slope, source range, etc.