This paper reports on a one-year pilot project for seaweed culture centered at the Fisheries Research Institute at Glugor (GFRI) in Penang, Malaysia. The work was undertaken during a 12-month period in 1983-84.

Following discussions between the Malaysian Department of Fisheries and the BOBP, an experimental seaweed culture project was decided on in 1982 with the following limited objectives:

- to determine whether and which species of seaweed of the genus Grad/aria could be cultured
-to determine the most feasible methods of culture
- to select some typical culture sites with suitable characteristics; and
- to give on-the-job training to counterpart staff.

The project’s long term objective was to establish an ongoing agarophyte seaweed production industry as an alternative means of employment for inshore fishermen of Malaysia.

Implementation of the project on behalf of BOBP was entrusted to ARDP (Agronomic Research, Development and Production Inc., Honolulu, Hawii). The ARDP made available an expert consultant, Jack Fisher; while research facilities, staff and other counterpart support were extended by the Fisheries Research Institute, Glugor, Penang. (The staff included Ms. Faazas Latif, Mr. Sulkhifli Talik, Mr. Chan Seng Mei and Mr. Samad Mohamad). The small-scale fisheries project of the Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP) provided a part of the funds, and also monitored and reviewed the projec’ This paper discusses project rationale and effort on seaweed culture sites and species farm production technologies, the methods and materials used, the conduct of seaweed farming experiments and their results.