Chitin, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), is one of the most abundant organic substances in the marine environment and the chitinolytic,bacteria help to recycle chitin. The present study was undertaken to investigate the chitinolytic activity of marine bacteria isolated from the sediments collected from the continental slope of Bay of Bengal. Total heterotrophic bacterial counts ranged from 0.42 to 37.38x104 CFUg^-1 dry sediment weight. Only 66.5% isolates showed the in situ chitin degradation. Totally, 11 genera of marine bacteria were identified of which 7 were chitinoclasts. The chitinoclasts percentage was maximum in Vibrio (17%) followed by Pseudomonas (13%), Microroccus (12%), Flavobacterium (l0%), Bacillus (6%), Alteromonas (5%). Cytophaga (4%) and unidentified (1%). The percentage occurrence of bacterial genera vis-d-vis chitinoclasts showed Flavobacterium as the most efficient and Bacillus as less efficient chitin degrading bacteria.