Weather, ocean currents key to fish spawning in Micronesia

Larval fish are spawned in a given location and may be recruited into their next life stage—larger, older fish—in the same place or a distant location. The recruitment of rabbitfish in Guam and groupers in Palau has historically been unpredictable. A published study, co-authored by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) research professor, found that patterns of ocean currents and weather determine the success or failure of recruitment from one spawning event to another in these Micronesian islands.