Cruise Results: NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter Cruise GU-03-02 (23) 12 June – 18 August 2003, A Study of Oceanic Cetaceans in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

The U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requires that stocks of marine mammal species in U.S. waters be maintained at or above their optimum sustainable population level (OSP), defined as the number of animals which results in the maximum net productivity. To meet this requirement for each stock, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) estimates annual human-caused mortality and potential biological removal (PBR), the maximum number of animals that may be removed from a stock due to human activities ( e.g., fisheries bycatch) while allowing the stock to reach or maintain its OSP. This report was created in 2003 and published at NOAA’s Institutional Repository in February 2023.