Auto-correlated directional swimming can enhance settlement success and connectivity in fish larvae.

•The pelagic movement of coastal marine fish is largely modeled as a non-directional movement (i.e. Simple Random Walk–SRW) in biophysical dispersal models. Yet, recent studies show that coastal marine fish larvae swim in a directional manner in the pelagic environment–indicating a Correlated Random Walk (CRW) rather a Simple Random Walk (SRW).•When CRW is implemented in a biophysical dispersal model, settlement success and population connectivity substantially increase.•Future modeling efforts should apply CRW when modeling pelagic larval movement of fish larvae in biophysical dispersal models.