Abstract: Marine surface sediments and sea water samples from the surface, middle and bottom layers were collected from the South Yellow Sea of China. The samples were pretreated by liquidliquid extraction and the 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the samples were determined by gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GCMS). The results show that the range of total PAHs is 15.76～233.39 ng/L in surface water and PAHs in the water samples from central South Yellow Sea are dominated by naphthalene (2 rings). Content of PAHs compounds don′t exceed the safety guidelines proposed by International Biology Organization or governments, but the individual compound, such as fluoranthene content has reached ecotoxicological evaluation criteria.