We report the results of a study of spatially resolved surface-emitted stimulated emission in GaN epilayer samples under conditions of strong optical pumping. We observe that even at excitation powers near the damage threshold, no surface-emitted stimulated emission occurs from samples with a high quality GaN epilayer. In parts of the samples with inferior surface quality, we show that stimulated emission comes from cracks, burned spots, and other imperfections, and is due to the scattering of a photon flux propagating parallel to the surface. Our results suggest that these defects are effective scattering centers and can severely affect the accuracy of optical gain measurements. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.