Background: In recent years, this group isolated trh positive Vibrio parahaemolyticus serotype 01:K56 from fresh water sediments around Dhaka city, Bangladesh. V. parahaemolyticus is a well known marine bacterium with pandemic effects of causing enteric diseases and the presence of trh positive V. parahaemolyticus serotype 01;K56 in the rivers of Bangladesh imply great public health concern. On the other hand, shrimp export sector is the second largest export earner for Bangladesh and contamination of shrimp with pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus could be a threat to the shrimp export sector. Therefore, this study was carried out to characterize V. parahaemolyticus isolates from shrimps and shrimp fields located in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Methods and materials: Thirty four V. parahaemolyticus organisms were isolated and confirmed by standard biochemical, serological and molecular techniques. All these isolates belonged to 10 serogroups (O10:KUT, O1:K25, OUT:K61, O11:K33, O2:K28, O1:K33, O1:KUT, O5:KUT, O11:KUT and O8:KUT) confirmed by duplicate testing. Along with the occurrence of thermostable direct haemolysin (TDH) and TDH-related haemolysin (TRH), the incidence of two sets of gene clusters that encode the type 3 secretion system apparatus (T3SS1 & T3SS2α) which contribute in pathogenicity of V. parahaemolyticus were also investigated. Results: All V. parahaemolyticus isolates were found to be negative for both tdh and trh genes, which were confirmed by PCR. T3SS1 was found to be present in all V. parahaemolyticus strains as confirmed by the PCR. All these environmental isolates were found to be negative for T3SS2α, which confirmed that T3SS2α is not associated with non pathogenic environmental strains. We also phenotypically characterized the environmental isolates for the enterotoxicity test, which showed no fluid accumulation in rabbit ileal loop assay. All the above mentioned tests were done twice and the variances were less than 5 percent. Conclusion: All these findings clearly indicate that the V.parahaemolyticus organisms, which are associated with the shrimp and shrimp fields of the coastal areas are non pathogenic in nature and thus, would not be a threat for shrimp export sector, as long as the concerned bacterium is V. parahaemolyticus.