The purpose of this study was to provide fisheries managers a current and longitudinal perspective on the for-hire fishery in offshore waters in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. A previous study of charter and party boat operators in the central and western Gulf of Mexico by Ditton et al. (1989) was replicated. The resultant social and economic data base for the for-hire industry will allow managers to better evaluate the impacts of future fisheries management regulations on this fishery and related communities where operators reside. Boat operators were interviewed between May- September 1998. Interviews covered 59 questions and lasted from 30- 60 minutes. Ninety-six charter boat operators (or 22% of the estimated population of 430 charter boats) were interviewed. Twenty-one of 23 (90%) party boat operators in the study region were interviewed. Results revealed few differences in the demographic or background characteristics of for-hire boat operators since 1987 but significant increases in the number of boats in the charter boat fleet, three-fold increases in the number of passenger-trips for both charter and party boats, increasing average boat lengths and horsepower, increasing dependence on offshore species, and more operators were members of business-related associations. Using standardized dollars, charter boat base fees have increased by 40% while party boat base fees have decreased by 40% since 1987. For the four-state study area, the direct economic impact of charter boat operators was $29.9 million; these revenues had a total impact of $42.5 million on output in the four- state economy. Total income (direct, indirect, and induced impacts) from charter and party boat operators in 1987 was $17.9 million earned by 1,089 employees.