From an economic perspective, the commercial blue crab fishery of the Gulf of Mexico is overcapitalized. The high number of traps has resulted in user group conflicts and increased ghost trap fishing. The overall catch per fisherman is declining suggesting that although the fishery may be able to tolerate additional fishing pressure, the fishery would become less profitable to individual fishermen. The relatively low-fixed investment requirements and high resource abundance, coupled with other economicand sociological factors, resulted in a dramatic increase in blue crab fishing effort in the Gulf of Mexico during the middle 1980s. Gross income in the fishery is relatively constant when evaluated on a deflated basis, and profitability may be declining because of increased operating costs to the fishermen