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In fisheries, recruitment is the number of fish that survive to enter a fishery

In fisheries, recruitment refers to the number of fish surviving to enter a fishery.  These fish have to pass through a number of life history stages (e.g., egg, larva, juvenile, etc.) before becoming vulnerable to fishing gear.

Understanding recruitment dynamics is a very complex process – dependent upon the spawning stock biomass and environmental factors.  In some species, recruitment is density dependent; in many of these cases, a larger number of spawners will produce fewer recruits per individual because of competition between larval fish, cannibalism by adults, and other factors.  In many species, 99% of mortality occurs at the egg stage.  This is just one of the many things that make it difficult to forecast population assessments for fish species.