In this study the theological behaviour, air-liquid surface and liquid-liquid interfacial activities of solutions of water-soluble associative copolymers of sodium maleate/1-dodecene and sodium maleate/1-hexadecene are investigated with respect to the polymer concentration, temperature, salinity, shear rate and time. The copolymers have been found to exhibit good air-liquid surface and liquid-liquid interfacial activities. The viscosity of the copolymer solutions is characteristically low and invariant with shear rate. Adding salt to the solution results in an increase in the liquid-liquid interfacial activity and viscosity of the polymer solution. The magnitude of the viscosity and the behaviour of the air-liquid surface tension versus concentration indicate that the copolymers form small micelles, each containing a few polymer molecules. The factors that lead to an increase in viscosity also lead to an increase in air-liquid surface and liquid-liquid interfacial activities of these polymer solutions.