We determined the total and dissolved extracellularenzymatic activity (EEA) of α-glucosidase and β-glucosidase(AGase and BGase), alkaline phosphatase (APase) and leucineaminopeptidase (LAPase) activities in the epi-, meso- andbathypelagic waters of the subtropical Northeast Atlantic.EEA was also determined in treatments in which bacterialEEAwas inhibited by erythromycin. Additionally, EEA decayexperiments were performed with surface and deep waters todetermine EEA lifetimes in both water masses. The proportionof dissolved to total EEA (66–89 %, 44–88 %, 57–82 % and86–100 % for AGase, BGase, APase and LAPase, respectively)was generally higher than the cell-associated (i.e.,particulate) EEA. The percentage of dissolved to total EEAwas inversely proportional to the percentage of erythromycininhibitedto total EEA. Since erythromycin-inhibited plusdissolved EEA equaled total EEA, this tentatively suggeststhat cell-associated EEA in the open oceanic water column isalmost exclusively of bacterial origin. The decay constants ofdissolved EEAwere in the range of 0.002–0.048 h−1 dependingon the type of extracellular enzyme, temperature and depthin the water column. Although dissolved EEA can have differentorigins, the major contribution of Bacteria to cellassociatedEEA and the long life-time of dissolved EEAsuggest that Bacteria—and not mesophilic Archaea—areessentially the main producers of EEA in the open subtropicalNortheast Atlantic down to bathypelagic layers.