These results indicate that sediments of the AS could be a promising source for novel bioactive molecules. The number of bacteria with bioactive potentials in sediments of AS are much higher compared to that reported from sediment of intertidal zone of China (Zheng et al. 2005) and bacteria associated with marine eukaryotes (Penesyan et al. 2009). Meanwhile, the results are comparable to that of sponge-associated bacteria; for example, more than 50% of bacteria isolated from the sponge Haliclona sp. and 34% from Irciniidae sp. showed antibacterial properties (Ana et al. 2013; Thomas et al. 2010).