An aerobic, Gram-negative, yellow-pigmented, non-motile rod-shaped bacterium designated KMM 9574T was isolated from a sand sediment sample collected from the Sea of Japan seashore. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain KMM 9574T belonged to the genus Sphingorhabdus sharing a highest sequence similarity to Sphingorhabdus marina JCM 14161T 96.8 %. Strain KMM 9574T was characterized by the major ubiquinone Q-10, and by the predominance of C18:1 ω7c, C16:0 2-OH, C16:1 ω7c, C17:1, followed by C15:0 2-OH and C14:0 2-OH in its fatty acid profile. Polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylcholine, sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, an unknown phospholipid, and an unknown lipid. The DNA G+C content was 56.5 mol %. Based on phylogenetic analysis and distinctive phenotypic characteristics, strain 9574T is concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Sphingorhabdus, for which the name Sphingorhabdus pacificus sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain of the species is strain KMM 9574T (= NRIC 0922T = JCM 30177T).