For the purpose of oligosaccharide production from alginate, the main component in cell walls of brown algae, the alginate degrading bacteria have been screened from the seaweeds and soil. Among the isolated 69 strains, one strain showing the highest degrading activity was selected and identified as Bacillus licheniformis strain. The adequate sodium alginate concentration for growing the Bacillus licheniformis was $2.0\%$. The effective nitrogen source is nutrient broth $(0.1\%)$, and optimum initial pH, NaCl concentration, temperature and incubation time to produce the alginate degrading enzyme were 7.5, $2\%,;30{pm}2^{circ}C$, and 144 hrs, respectively.