A total of 83 shellfish samples from two local retail sources (A and B) yielded 38 samples positive for the presence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus based on 3 tube MPN enrichments and isolation from thiosulfate-citrate-bile salts-sucrose agar (TCBS) and biochemical tests. The 38 positive samples yielded 133 biochemically presumptive isolates of V. parahaemolyticus. Among these 133 presumptive isolates, 104 were confirmed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which yielded more reliable identification results than the biochemical tests. The 38 biochemically presumptive samples yielded 29 samples that were confirmed by PCR to be positive for the presence of V. parahaemolyticus. RAPD analysis with three random primers was performed to examine the genetic diversity of 64 strains among the PCR confirmed V. parahaemolyticus isolates from both retail sources. 52 of 56 composite RAPD types consisted of single strains, indicating that most of the V. parahaemolyticus isolates were genetically quite heterogeneous. No strains representing the same RAPD type occurred in both retail outlets, implying that contamination of the shellfish by V. parahaemolyticus from the 2 retail sources was from different environmental locals and shellfish harvesting areas. Eight genomic clusters were generated at the 25% similarity level in a dendrogram based on RAPD profiles. With few exception, isolates with close genetic relationships grouping into an individual cluster tended to be derived from the same retail source.