Reports describing actinobacteria isolated from marine environments have been dominated by Micromonospora, Rhodococcus and Streptomyces species. Recent culture-independent studies have shown that marine environments contain a high diversity of actinobacterial species that are rarely, if at all, recovered by cultivation-based methods. In this study, it is shown that cultivation-independent methods can be used to guide the application of selective isolation methods. The detection of marine-derived actinobacterial species that have previously only been reported from terrestrial habitats is highlighted. This study provides good evidence that the previously described low diversity of actinobacterial species isolated from marine environments does not reflect an actual low species diversity, and that the use of informed selective isolation procedures can aid in the isolation of members of novel taxa.