We investigated the adsorption of phenanthrene (PHE) onto estuarine sediment with varied salinity and concentrations of anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, SDBS). It is a critical step for better understanding of the migration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollutants to seawater. The concentration of PHE in the experimental system was detected by a fluorescence spectrophotometer and the results were expressed by partition coefficient (in terms of K_d). It found that the salinity promoted and the SDBS inhibit the adsorption of PHE onto sediment in a single system. The combination effect of SDBS and salinity enhance this adsorption behavior but varied significantly with the ratio of salinity to surfactant. It is a confirmed fact that the mobility of phenanthrene in water increased with the combination of the salinity and SDBS. It would lead to the pollution of PHE change from point model to mobility model and increase its flux into the sea. However, the mechanism of those adsorption behaviors is unclear and may relate to the interactions between sediment and SDBS, SDBS and salinity, and sediments and salts, which need further study.