A control scheme is presented for reducing dynamic coupling between an underwater robotic vehicle (URV) and a manipulator. During task execution the torques commanded at the manipulator joints lead to reactions at the junction point of the manipulator and vehicle. These reactions disturb the vehicle position and orientation and are the source of the vehicle-manipulator coupling. In underwater robotic vehicle-manipulator (URVM) applications, the URV serves as a base while the manipulator performs a required task. Therefore, it is necessary to hold the URV as stationary as possible. In the current work, URV thrusters are used to compensate for the dynamic coupling forces. Slotines sliding mode control approach is used to reduce the dynamic coupling present in URVM systems. The articulated body (AB) algorithm is used both for the time-domain simulation of the system and for the dynamic equations within the model-based sliding-mode controller. Finally, the results of time-domain numerical simulation of the proposed control scheme on a URVM system are presented.