The maintenance of physiological activity during dilution is very critical for the accurate enumeration of Vibrio spp. in marine samples. We investigated the effect of various diluents on the recovery of Vibrio parahaemolyticus using the direct plate counting and most probable number (MPN) methods. The effects of NaCl (0.85 and 3%) and pH (from 6.6 to 7.4) in diluents based on distilled water or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were evaluated with three V. parahaemolyticus strains. PBS-3% NaCl (pH 6.6), as opposed to PBS, was the most effective diluent at maintaining viable cell numbers up to 2 log CFU/g during dilution for direct plate counting using on thiosulfate citrate bile salts sucrose (TCBS) selective agar, as well as minimizing the difference in cell numbers between TCBS and non-selective nutrient agar. It also increased counts of V parahaemolyticus inoculated into oysters relative to PBS (p<0.01), suggesting that PBS-3% NaCl (PH 6.6) can reduce the problem of underestimating V. parhaemolyticus counts using PBS alone.