Ballast water has been known as a major vector for global dispersal of toxic dinoflagellates and other microalgae. In this study, biodiversity in ships’ ballast water was examined using a dinoflagellate-oriented PCR primer set and species-specific real-time PCR. While motile dinoflagellates could be observe at very low cell densities by light microscopy,a wide range of dinoflagellate taxa including parasitic and phototrophic pico-dinoflagellates as well as harmful species to marine fish/shellfish was detected when techniques for cloning/sequencing of SSU rDNA of sample cells were used. Present result suggests that molecular methods including species-specific PCR primers may offer rapid and accurate detection of invasive species in ballast water.