Bacterial diversity in sub-Antarctic seawater, collected off Ushuaia, Argentina, was examined using a culture independent approach. The composition of the 16S rRNA gene libraries from seawater and seawater contaminated with the water soluble fraction of crude oil was statistically different (P value 0.001). In both libraries, clones representing the Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroidetes group and unculturable bacteria were dominant. Clones associated with the genera Roseobacter, Sulfitobacter, Staleya, Glaciecola, Colwellia, Marinomonas, Cytophaga and Cellulophaga were common to both the libraries. However, clones associated with Psychrobacter, Arcobacter, Formosa algae, Polaribacter, Ulvibacter and Tenacibaculum were found only in seawater contaminated with hydrocarbons (Table 1). Further, the percentage of clones of Roseobacter, Sulfitobacter and Glaceicola was high in seawater (43%, 90% and 12% respectively) compared to seawater contaminated with hydrocarbons (35%, 4% and 9% respectively). One of the clones F2C63 showed 100% similarity with Marinomonas ushuaiensis a bacterium identified by us from the same site.