Shewanella haliotis, a species of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacteria, was first isolated from the gut microflora of abalone (large edible sea snails) collected from the ocean near Yeosu, South Korea, by Kim et al. in 2007.

The genus Shewanella had been previously named in 1985 by MacDonell and Colwell in honor of Scottish microbiologist James M. Shewan, for his work in fisheries microbiology.

It was found to be positive for malate as a carbon source, and negative for mannose and glucose use.

[3] The route of Shewanella infection is associated with direct contact with the organism through seawater or ingestion of raw seafood, causing severe soft tissue infection.

One case of infection was found to be susceptible to ciprofloxacin (0.25 mg/L), piperacillin-tazobactam (1.0 mg/L), ceftriaxone (1.0 mg/L), and meropenem (0.38 mg/L).