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Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks (GAMMS)

Overview | Draft Reports | Reports by Region | Reports by Species/Stock | Scientific Review Groups

Background

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) provides only general guidance on assessment methods and on the content of the Reports. As a result, NMFS and USFWS have held a series of workshops since 1994 to develop guidelines that may be consistently applied nationally to marine mammal stock assessments.

2016 Revisions to Guidelines (GAMMS)

The guidelines for assessing marine mammal stocks were revised in 2016: 

• 2016 revision to the guidelines:
  NMFS, 2016. Guidelines for Preparing Stock Assessment Reports Pursuant to the 1994 Amendments to the MMPA [pdf]. NMFS Instruction 02-204-01, February 22, 2016.
  

Previous Workshop Reports and Guidelines

• 2011 GAMMS workshop report:
  Moore, J.E., and Merrick R., editors. 2011. Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammals Stocks: Report of the 2011 GAMMS III Workshop [pdf], February 15 - 18, 2011, La Jolla, California. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-47.
  
  
• 2005 revisions to guidelines:
  NMFS. 2005. Revisions to Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks (GAMMS II) [pdf]. 24p.
  
  
• 1996 GAMMS workshop report and revisions to guidelines:
  Wade, Paul R. and Angliss, Robyn P. 1996. Report of the Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks (GAMMS) Workshop [pdf]. Seattle, WA. NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-OPR-12, 93p.
  • Appendix II: PBR guidelines (p. 51) [pdf]
    
    
• 1995 workshop report and revisions to guidelines:
  Barlow, Jay, Steven L. Swartz, Thomas C. Eagle, and Paul R. Wade. 1995. U.S. Marine Mammal Stock Assessments: Guidelines for Preparation, Background, and a Summary of the 1995 Assessments [pdf]. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-OPR-6, 73 p.

Updated: February 22, 2016