Analysis of how growth and natural mortality interact to determine the optimal size of animals to harvest to achieve maximum sustainable yields. YPR analysis assumes that yield and productivity will reach equilibrium at some optimal level, and biological reference points based on yield-per-recruit analysis will be expected to lack precaution because of natural variability in stock productivity, particularly if the potential for reduced future recruitment resulting from decreased parental biomass is not considered. YPR analysis does not take economic factors into consideration, and it may be more economically beneficial to catch fish at some other preferred market size (such as when they are young and plentiful, or when they are older and larger but fewer). Alternatives such as dollar-per-recruit and spawner-per-recruit exist, which attempt to address some of the limitations of YPR.
