Seasonal variation of marine bacterial community was analyzed in the surface sea water collected from one of the stations locating at Tongyeoung coastal area, Korea. The results obtained by the culture method through identification with the VITEK Microbe ID system after pure culture in the selective medium were compared with those obtained by the DGGE based 16S rRNA PCR method. The composition of the marine bacterial community in the sea water samples harvested in September, 2004, November, 2004, January, 2005, May, 2005 and August, 2005 determined by the culture method showed 5, 5, 4, 6, and 10 strains respectively. Pseudomonas fluorescens and Acinetobacter lwoffii were detected in all seasons. The other strains were identified to be Pseudomonas stutzeri, Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Burkholderia mallei and Chryseobacterium indologenes. In contrast, the 16S rRNA PCR-DGGE method detected 10, 11, 6, 9 and 13 populations respectively in the same sea water samples and the strains were identified to be Acinetobacter lwoffii, Burkholderia mallei, Pseudomonas fluoresence, Actinobacillus ureae, Burkholderia sp., Pseudomonas stutzeri, Roseobacter sp., Vibrio parahaemolyticue, Sphingomonas paucimobilis and Rugeria algocolus. This results indicated that the DGGE based 16S rRNA PCR method was more efficient than the culture method for the grasp of the characteristics of the marine bacterial community.