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Twenty strains of marine bacteria showing the properties of pigmentation and icthyotoxicity were studied for selected physiological features. A quantitative taxonomic analysis with an electronic computer was performed. Eighteen species of Pseudomonas were included in the computer analysis as reference strains. The marine collection formed a homogeneous cluster, 80% similarity, and showed a 67 to 70% similarity to certain of the Pseudomonas species: P. atlantica, P. geniculata, P. synxantha, and P. taetrolens. The marine strains are treated as a phenon describing the species P. piscicida. The species was characterized by the hypothetical Median Organism concept; P. piscicida 14 corresponded most closely to the Median Organism. Flavobacterium piscicida was isolated from "red tide" waters off the southwest coast of Florida (Bein, 1954). Orange pigmentation and iethyotoxicity, conspicuous attributes, guided subsequent isolations from waters off the west coast of Florida, Biscayne Bay, and aquaria of the