Paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) occurrence and variation in the different bivalve species including oyster, Crassostrea gigas and mussel, Mytilus edulis in Jinhae bay Korea from January to December in 1997 were surveyed. And also compositional characteristics of PSP ingredients in the different bivalve species were investigated. PSP in shellfish was detected from late February and increased continuously until the middle of April in Jinhae bay. And after April PSP level had been decreased gradually and the toxicity was not detected by mouse bioassay in the early of June. Of the examined bivalve species, PSP content in the mussel exhibited the highest value and the PSP content in the mussel in the middle of April, PSP high season in Jinhae bay, was 6 times higher than that in the oyster. Gonyautoxin (GTX)1-4 group occupied 59.0-78.8% of whole PSP contents and identified as dominant ingredient in the examined bivalves except oyster. And it is also identified that the PSP toxicity in the tested species were derived from the GTX group. And the dominant ingredient of PSP in the oyster was carbamoyl-N-sulfo-llα- hydroxysaxitoxin sulfate(C1)(37.9%) and neosaxitoxin(neoSTX)(26.2%). But the toxicity of C1 in the tested oyster could be ignorable and most toxicity (80.0%) was derived from saxitoxin (STX) group.