Two urease-positive Vibrio sp. were isolated from a brown shark that died in captivity at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Morphological, biochemical, and molecular genetic studies revealed one of the isolates to be V. damsela and the other a new species V. charachariae. In population of V. damsela and V. charachariae into healthy lemon shark produced subclinical disease only in sharks receiving V. charachariae. Lesions were evaluated and were shown to be similar to those of the brown sharks from which the isolates were taken V. damsela was rapidly cleared from the lemon sharks inoculated suggesting that they were not responsible for the original mortality. These results provide confirmation of a bacterial induced disease syndrome affecting brown sharks, and open the possibility of such a syndrome in other elasmobranchs.