tMarine environment consists of the largest sources diversified genetic pool of material with an enormouspotential for a wide variety of enzymes including proteases. A protease hydrolyzes the peptide bond andmost of proteases possess many industrial applications. Marine proteases differ considerably from thosefound in internal or external organs of invertebrates and vertebrates. In common with all enzymes, exter-nal factors such as temperature, pH and type of media are important for the activity, catalytic efficiency,stability and proper functioning of proteases. In this review valuable characteristics of proteases in marineorganisms and their applications are gathered from a wide literature survey. Considering their biochem-ical significance and their increasing importance in biotechnology, a thorough understanding of marineproteases functioning could be of prime importance.