Microbiological analyses were made on samples of cooked blue crab taken immediately after debacking and either forced-air cooling or static-air cooling. Forced-air cooling had significantly lower (P<0.05) total coliform and fecal coliform counts, 2.51 and 2.30 log10 MPN/100 g, compared with those of static-air cooling, 2.83 and 2.60 log10 MPN/100 g. All treatments had less than 2.30 log10 MPN/100 g Escherichia coli. Staphylococcus aureus counts in the forced-air cooled crabs were approximately 4-fold lower than counts in static-air cooled crabs. The aerobic plate counts and psychrotrophic plate counts were significantly lower (P<0.01) by 1.04 and 0.81 log10 CFU/g, respectively, by forced-air cooling compared to static-air cooling. Thermocouple temperature readings were used to determine differences in cooling rates between forced-air and static-air cooling. After 1.5 h of cooling, the initial precooled crabmeat temperature of 34°C (93°F) was reduced by forced-air cooling and static-air cooling to 4°C (40°F) and 20°C (67°F), respectively. The rates of cooling using forced-air and static-air were significantly different (P<0.01).