Staphylococcus aureus can cause alimentary toxicosis, contamination of which could exert a great influence on food safety and export processing of aquatic products. In this study, TEMPO/STA method was used for enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus in 535 aquatic samples, and compared with PetrifilmTM Staph Express Count Plate method. TEMPO/STA method was demonstrated to be a rapid and accurate method, with a good agreement (96.6% compliance rate, no difference in accuracy) with the other one.