Abstract We investigated the hypothesis that synchronous recruitment is due to a shared susceptibility to environmental processes using stock–recruitment residuals for 52 marine fish stocks within three N ortheast P acific large marine ecosystems: the E astern B ering S ea and A leutian I slands, G ulf of A laska, and C alifornia C urrent. There was moderate coherence in exceptionally strong and weak year‐classes and correlations across stocks. Based on evidence of synchrony from these analyses, we used B ayesian hierarchical models to relate recruitment to environmental covariates for groups of stocks that may be similarly influenced by environmental processes based on their life histories. There were consistent relationships among stocks to the covariates, especially within the G ulf of A laska and C alifornia C urrent. The best G ulf of A laska model included Northeast Pacific sea surface height as a predictor of recruitment, and was particularly strong for stocks dependent on cross‐shelf transport during the larval phase for recruitment. In the C alifornia C urrent the best‐fit model included S an F rancisco coastal sea level height as a predictor, with higher recruitment for many stocks corresponding to anomalously high sea level the year before spawning and low sea level the year of spawning. The best E astern B ering S ea and A leutian Islands model included several environmental variables as covariates and there was some consistent response across stocks to these variables. Future research may be able to utilize these across‐stock environmental influences, in conjunction with an understanding of ecological processes important across early life history stages, to improve identification of environmental drivers of recruitment.