With shortages arising in the late 1950s in the natural resources of Gelidium spp. in Japan, and with the prohibition of agarophyte export from Korea in 1961 owing to development of a local agar industry (Anon., 1981), an increased demand for raw agarophyte material was seen on a world level. Seeing the possibility of Rio Grande do Norte entering the phycocolloid market, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte developed Project Agar/UFRN in 1964. As a result of this project, a note was published in which 17 species of seaweed of probable economic use were listed (Câmara Neto, 1966), and in the years following, the region was involved in the commercial exploitation of Gracilaria spp. and Hypnea musciformis. Several seaweed-export firms were established and three factories were installed of which two remain today. Legislative inadequacy and overexploitation debilitated the natural reserves, which showed signs of depletion in just under ten years of use. Considering the positive effects on the regional economy and the socioeconomic and cultural impact on the coastal communities where the seaweed purchasing centers were established, it was recognized that a survey program was needed that would adopt and (or) produce a production methodology compatible with the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of coastal northeast Brazil and would at the same time be capable of attracting an investor. The studies of seaweed culture conducted at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte were financed by the University, the Superintendence for Development of the Northeast (SUDENE), the International Foundation for Science (IFS) and the Superintendence for Fisheries Development (SUDEPE).