A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated JN33T, was isolated from seawater collected from the western Pacific Ocean. Strain JN33T was positive for hydrolysis of aesculin and gelatin. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain JN33T showed high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Actibacterium atlanticum 22II-S11-z10T (97.3 %), A. mucosum KCTC 23349T (96.6 %) and A. ureilyticum LS-811T (95.7 %) and exhibited less than 97.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with respect to the other type strains within the family Rhodobacteraceae. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain JN33T fell within the cluster of the genus Actibacterium. The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain JN33T and the type strains of Actibacterium species were 73.1-73.8 % and 19.8-20.1 %, respectively. The sole respiratory quinone was ubiquinone 10 (Q-10). The principal fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1�s7c and/or C18 : 1�s6c) and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified phospholipid and two unidentified aminolipids. The DNA G+C content was 57.8 mol%. Distinctly different phylogenetic characteristics, chemotaxonomic differences, as well as phenotypic properties, revealed that strain JN33T could be differentiated from the Actibacterium species with validly published names. Therefore, it is proposed that strain JN33T represents a novel species of the genus Actibacterium, for which the name Actibacterium pelagium sp. nov. (type strain, JN33T=CGMCC 1.16012T=KCTC 52653T) is proposed.