Abstract: As a notorious environmental issue, harmful algal blooms (HABs) severely threat the marine ecosystem, aquaculture and human health around the world. Therefore, it has been a research hotspot to develop a more environment-friendly and effective agents to control the HABs. In recent years, a lot of marine bacteria have been found to inhibit algal growth or lyse the algae through direct or indirect attacking. Utilizing marine algicidal bacteria to control HABs can maintain balance of water ecosystem. The algicidal bacteria show broad application prospects in HABs control because of its secure and high efficiency. In this paper, the development of algicidal bacteria, algicidal mechanism and their applications are summarized, and the future prospects in theoretical research and application fields are discussed.