Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp), a leading seafood-borne causative agent of gastroenteritis, was inoculated into seawater and incubated at temperatures mimicking different pre-harvest shellfish rearing seasons in order to better characterize the population dynamics of Vp strains containing different virulence factors. Strains containing the thermostable direct hemolysin (tdh+) and tdh-related hemolysin (trh+) were used and their cellular responses at the transcriptomic level in seawater at 10 and 30 degree celcius were studied. For ATCC 17802, please use BioProject PRJNA949727.