In Eastern Harbour (EH) of Alexandria (Egypt), where an under-water museum is planned to be built, the distribution of some heterotrophic bacteria and their relationships to physical parameters and biochemical composition of the sedimentary organic matter were investigated. The Eastern Harbour is a relatively shallow semi-closed basin and is sheltered from the sea by an artificial breakwater leaving two openings, El-Boughaz and El-Silsila. Seven stations covering the area of the EH were selected and surface sediments were collected seasonally from spring to winter 2002. The near bottom temperature varied seasonally with a minimum value in winter and a maximum in summer. In contrast to the temperature values, dissolved oxygen exhibited maximum values in cold seasons. The seasonal average of the total organic carbon ranged from 0.48 ± 0.16 to 4.42 ± 2.46%, while the total organic nitrogen ranged from 0.07 ± 0.08 to 0.42 ± 0.38%. The total carbohydrate had minimum and maximum values of 273 µg g -1 and 6539 µg g -1 .The combined amino acids represented the dominant biochemical class of organic matter in the EH sediments with an average of 3665 ± 1911 µg g -1 . The total bacterial count ranged from 1.4 x 10 4 to 1.4 x 10 7 colony forming unit (CFU) g -1 sediment dry weight. Amylolytic bacterial group was recorded in almost all sites and seasons, while proteolytic bacteria were dominant in spring and autumn. The variation in the abundance of amylolytic and proteolytic bacterial groups was found to be parallel to the variation in soluble carbohydrates and free amino acids. High percentage of H 2 S-producing bacteria was reported during summer at some stations confirming the low oxygen content of the sediment at these sites. Agar-degrading bacteria were found only in warm seasons. The count of coliform bacteria in the EH sediments was very low (< 10 CFU g -1 ) during all monitored seasons indicating that the EH marine environment was almost free of domestic waste discharge during this period.
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