Fifty orange-pigmented, gram-negative, rod-shaped isolates were recovered from healthy and diseased turbot and from coastal waters (collected in Scotland). On the basis of the results of an examination of 125 phenotypic characteristics and the results of DNA-DNA and DNA-rRNA hybridization experiments, we concluded that these isolates are members of a new species in the genus Flavobacterium, for which the name Flavobacterium scophthalmum is proposed. The type strain is CCM 4109 (= LMG 13028).