An optical sensor for the measurement of salinity in seawater has been developed. It is based on a chloride-quenchable fluorescent probe (lucigenin) immobilized on a Nafion film. Two approaches for measuring salinity via chloride concentration are presented. In the first, a change in salinity corresponds to a change in the fluorescence intensity of lucigenin. In the second, the fluorescence intensity information is converted into a phase angle information by adding an inert phosphorescent reference luminophore (a ruthenium complex entrapped in poly(acrylonitrile) beads). Under these conditions, the chloride-dependent fluorescence intensity of lucigenin can be converted into a chloride-dependent fluorescence phase shift which serves as the analytical information. This scheme is referred to as dual lifetime referencing (DLR). The sensor was used to determine the salinity in seawater and brackish water of the North Sea.