Where has all the recruitment research gone, long time passing?

Abstract

Abstract For most of the past 100 years, research into recruitment processes—as pioneered by Johan Hjort—has been a consistent focus of research in fisheries science. This was reflected not only in the literature but in the organizational structures and research strategies of national and international fisheries research and management institutions. Over the past decade or so, we perceived that recruitment research is fading, if not into obscurity then at least into a more marginal place in fisheries and marine research. In this paper, we assess if our perception is real by quantifying trends in scientific publications and in the work activities within ICES during specific periods extending back to the 1920s. Our analysis documents a decline in research on recruitment processes. We put forward three possible hypotheses to explain this decline: 1. All the key research questions about recruitment have been answered; 2. The volume of research on recruitment processes has declined because the answers are no longer relevant; 3. Recruitment research has been co-opted by more trendy, possibly ephemeral, and research topics. There is little evidence to support the first two of these hypotheses and we consider the third to be the most plausible. Finally, we conclude that this new terminology/repackaging of recruitment research does not bring with it new and fresh thinking and, therefore, comes at a cost that should be carefully considered.