Three alginate lyases (A, B, and C) from an alginate-degrading marine bacterium strain HZJ216 isolated from brown seaweed in the Yellow Sea of China and identified preliminarily as Pseudomonas fluorescens are purified, and their biochemical properties are described. Molecular masses of the three enzymes are determined by SDS-PAGE to be 60.25, 36, and 23 kDa with isoelectric points of 4, 4.36, and 4.59, respectively. Investigations of these enzymes at different pH and temperatures show that they are most active at pH 7.0 and 35 A degrees C. Alginate lyases A and B are stable in the pH range of 5.0-9.0, while alginate lyase C is stable in the pH range of 5.0-7.0. Among the metal ions tested, additions of Na+, K+, and Mg2+ ions can enhance the enzyme activities while Fe2+, Fe3+, Ba2+, and Zn2+ ions show inhibitory effects. The substrate specificity results demonstrate that alginate lyase C has the specificity for G block while alginate lyases A and B have the activities for both M and G blocks. It is the first report about extracellular alginate lyases with high alginate-degrading activity from P. fluorescens.