The phenotypic and carrageenolytic features of a novel halo tolerant marine bacterium, isolated from decayed red algal samples collected along the west coast of India were studied. This gram-negative strain was identified as Pseudomonas elongata (MTCC 5261) syn. Microbulbifer elongatus comb. nov according to its morphological, physiological and molecular characterization. The extracellular k-carrageenase was purified 106.54-fold by a combination of ammonium sulfate precipitation $(40{sim}60%)$ and successive gel filtration chromatography. The purified protein fraction yielded significantly high activity of 426.19 units/mg protein and migrated as a single band on a sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with a molecular weight of ${sim}128 kDa$. For k-carrageenase activity, optimum temperature was $40^{circ}C$ whereas two pH optima i.e. 5.6 and 7.7 were observed. For k-carrageenan, the enzyme gave a $K_m$ value of 6.66 mg/mL and a $V_{max}$ value of $4{mu}mol/min/mg$ when the reaction was carried out at $40^{circ}C$ and pH 5.6. lsolated k-carrageenase could successfully generate protoplasts of Kappaphycus alvarezii. This is the first report on the production of k-carrageenase by this bacterium isolated from west coast of India. Molecular mass and various characteristics showed that the carrageenase from P. elongata was much different from those previously reported.