A Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, motile, slightly curved rod-shaped bacterial strain was isolated from black sand collected from Soesoggak, Jeju island, Korea. The strain, designated J74T, was able to grow in the presence of 1-7.5 % NaCl, at temperatures of 4-45 degrees C and at pH 5-10. Strain J74T was oxidase- and catalase-positive, arginine dihydrolase-negative and sensitive to the vibriostatic agent O/129. Strain J74T was characterized based on physiology, morphology, biochemical features and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The isolate required sodium ions for growth and utilized a wide range of compounds as sole sources of carbon and energy. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain J74T belongs to the class Gammaproteobacteria. It was found to be associated with the genus Vibrio and was phylogenetically related most closely to the type strain of Vibrio hispanicus (98.7 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). However, DNA-DNA hybridization experiments between strain J74T and V. hispanicus KCTC 12827T revealed a level of relatedness of 37.7 %. Thus, phenotypic and phylogenetic data suggested that J74T should be placed in the genus Vibrio as representing a novel species, for which the name Vibrio areninigrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is J74T (=KCTC 22122T =JCM 14949T).