The anchoveta fish (family Engraulidae) occurs exclusively along the turbulent coasts of Peru and Chile. This book, the fruit of a collaborative effort among research institutions on three continents - IMARPE in Peru, GTZ in West Germany, and ICLARM in the Philippines - presents a comprehensive study of the recruitment (population growth) patterns of the northern/central portion of the anchoveta stock, i.e., off the Peruvian coast. The study is the first attempt ever to use time series data from Peru (covering 1953 to 1984) to test Lasker's hypothesis that storms, by dissipating food-rich microlayers in which anchoveta larvae can feed, lead to their starvation and thus to recruitment failures. The text is divided into four main sections. Part one contains three studies on oceanographic and atmospheric conditions in the region. Parts two and three, each containing six analyses, treat the dynamics of the anchoveta stock and of major anchoveta predators and competitors, respectively. A final section presents three papers on managing the Peruvian anchoveta ecosystem; the last of these, an attempted synthesis of the entire document, indicates steps towards integrating what is now known of fish dynamics off Peru into a large-scale simulation model for use in formulating a comprehensive fishery management plan for that system. All the studies are technical in nature and include extensive references. Species, geographic, and author indexes are appended.