WHOI-NEFC fisheries ecology seminar series : a summary

Abstract

This report summarizes the findings of the joint WHOI-NEFC seminar series on recruitment processes in marine fish populations. The seminar series reviewed the status of knowledge of the recruitment process together with on-going research in this field. From the seminars presented it was evident that potentially important biological and physical processes which may control recruitment occur throughout the entire first year of life. It is important to understand the causes of recruitment variability in order to know the degree to which density dependence controls marine fish population dynamics. Future research, therefore, should not focus on a single process or life stage but instead should evaluate all potentially important processes throughout the first year of life.