The marine bacterial flora of seawater at Masan Bay located in southern part of Korea was investigated to provide basic information about the origin of red tides in this area. The samples were collected at 5 sampling stations (see fig.1) established once a month from July 1985 to June 1986. The results are summerized as follows: 1. Two hundred and ninety one strains of marine bacteria among 299 strains isolated were identified from 156 samples(150 seawater samples and 6 mud samples) collected in the study area. 2. During the study period, the dissolved oxygen ranged from 2.1 to 6.3 ml/l; temperature of surface seawater ranged from 4.6 to $30.1^{circ}C$; phosphate, silicate and nitrite ranged from 1.6 to 5.6 ${mu}g-at/l$, 327.27 to 3798.38 ${mu}g-at/l$, and 1.09 to 5.5 ${mu}g-at/l$, respectively. 3. Pseudomonas spp. were the most dominant bacterial species before red tides, Ancinetobacter spp. and Flavobacterium spp. during red tides, and Flavobacterium spp., Vibrio spp. and Acinetobacter spp. after red tides. 4. Viable counts marine bacterial flora ranged $10^4{sim}10^8cell/ml$, and the most abundant viable counts of marine bacteria occured during red tides ($10^7{sim}10^8cell/ml$).