Consideration of cephalopods has been included in earlier general reviews of fish re-sources. A review made by the Fishery Agency, Japanese Government (1968) on the current state of exploited marine resources and of latent or promising stocks of marine animals included an examination of cephalopod. resouroes. Some estimates of cephalopod stock size were also done by Gulland. (1970) whose comprehensive study became an important benchmark for the succeeding works. The interest shown by the Japanese Government and FAO stems from the belief that cephalopod resources may be a promising protein source.