A taxonomic study was carried out on a strain, designated W3-3A(T), which was isolated from a pyrene-degrading consortium, enriched from sediment of the Pacific Ocean. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain W3-3A(T) belonged to the genus Bowmanella, with the highest sequence similarity (99.0 %) with Bowmanella denitrificans BD1(T), whereas sequence similarities with other species were less than 93 %. The nucleotide sequence similarity of both gyrB and rpoD genes of strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) was 81.1 %. However, the protein sequence similarities of the gyrB and rpoD genes of strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) were 96.1 % and 91.0 %, respectively. Phylogenetic trees based on these housekeeping genes showed that strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) formed a distinct lineage in the Gammaproteobacteria. The DNA-DNA hybridization value between strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) was 43 %. Strain W3-3A(T) could also be differentiated from B. denitrificans BD1(T) based on the repetitive extragenic palindromic DNA-PCR fingerprint. The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA of strain W3-3A(T) was 49 mol%. The combined genotypic and phenotypic data showed that strain W3-3A(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bowmanella, for which the name Bowmanella pacifica sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain W3-3A(T) (=CGMCC 1.7086(T)=LMG 24568(T)=MCCC 1A01018(T)).