Young of the Year

Young of the year (YOY) are fish in their first year of life, the cohort hatched in the current spawning season before their first birthday. YOY abundance from beach-seine and trawl surveys is a recruitment index that forecasts the strength of a year class entering the fishery, since survival through the first winter often sets adult numbers. The metric is central to stock assessment and to monitoring nursery habitats such as estuaries, seagrass, and salt marsh, where many YOY concentrate. Strong or weak year classes propagate through the stock for years and drive future catch.