The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the economic rationale of input use by small trawlers in Kerala Coast. In order to estimate the production elasticities of different inputs, a Cobb-Douglas type of production function was fitted to the pooled data on coast and earnings of 50 trawlers for a period of 10 years from 1971-72 to 1980-81, obtained from Kozhikode Regional Fish Marketing Co-operative Society. For functional analysis, vessel-wise gross returns (in rupees) was taken as dependent variable and number of days fished, fuel expenditure (in rupees) and repairing and maintenance charges (in rupees) as independent variables. Marginality analysis was also done to evaluate the efficiency of input use.