Only a few of the many species of squid in the world's oceans are being commercially exploited. The Japanese squid fishery has, over the centuries, been built up through increasing knowledge of squid biology, behaviour and environment. Consequently Japanese experts have here been asked to share their experience with other fishermen, researchers and fishing technologists, to enable them to successfully develop the latent squid resources in their own fishing grounds. Most of the Japanese jigging fleet still consists of small relatively low-cost, coastal vessels.