Blue Runner
Species Facts
Science Name: Caranx crysos
Other Names: bluestripe jack, Egyptian scad, hardtail jack and hardnose
Size: Generally about 1 pound.
World Record: 5.05 kg (11 lb 2 oz)
Description

"The blue runner is moderately large in size, growing to a maximum confirmed length of 70 cm and 5.05 kg in weight, but is more common at lengths less than 35 cm.[3] The blue runner is morphologically similar to a number of other carangids, having an elongated, moderately compressed body with dorsal and ventral profiles of approximately equal convexity and a slightly pointed snout.[9] The posterior section of the eye is covered by a moderately well developed adipose eyelid, and the posterior extremity of the jaw is vertically under the center of the eye.[10] The dorsal fin is in two parts, the first consisting of 8 spines and the second of 1 spine followed by 22 to 25 soft rays. The anal fin consists of 2 anteriorly detached spines followed by 1 spine and 19 to 21 soft rays.[9] The pectoral fins become more falcate with age,[6] having 21 to 23 rays, and are slightly longer than the head.[11] The lateral line has a pronounced but short anterior arch, with the curved section intersecting the straight section below the spine of the second dorsal fin. The straight section contains 0 to 7 scales followed by 46 to 56 very strong scutes, with bilateral keels present on the caudal peduncle. There are a total of 86 to 98 scales and scutes over the entire lateral line.[12] The chest is completely scaled. The upper jaw contains an irregular series of outer canines with an inner band of small, regularly spaced teeth, while the lower jaw contains a single band of small teeth.[10] The species has 35 to 42 gill rakers in total; 10 to 14 on the upper limb and 25 to 28 on the lower limb, with this the only feature that differs between C. crysos and C. caballus. There are 25 vertebrae present.[9] The blue runner's colour varies from bluish green to olive green dorsally, becoming silvery grey to brassy below. Juveniles often have 7 dark vertical bands on their body. Fin colour also varies, with all fins ranging from to dusky or hyaline to olive green. The species also has a dusky spot which may not be distinct on the upper operculum.[10][11] "

Distribution and Habitat

"The blue runner is extensively distributed throughout the tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean, ranging widely along both the eastern American coastline and the western African and European coastlines.[3] In the western Atlantic, the species southernmost record comes from Maceio, Brazil,[9] with the species ranging north along the central American coastline, and throughout the Caribbean and the numerous archipelagos throughout.[11] From the Gulf of Mexico its distribution extends north along the U.S. coast and as far north as Nova Scotia in Canada, also taking in several north-west Atlantic islands.[3] The blue runner is also present on several central Atlantic islands, making its distribution Atlantic-wide. In the eastern Atlantic the southernmost record is from Angola, with the blue runner distributed extensively along the west African coast up to Morocco and into the Mediterranean Sea.[10] The blue runner is found throughout the Mediterranean, having been recorded from nearly all the countries on its shores.[3] The species is rarely found north of Portugal in the north east Atlantic, although records do exist of isolated catches from Madeira Island[13] and Galicia, Spain.[14] The furthest north it has been reported is southern Great Britain, where two specimens were taken in 1992 and 1993.[15] There has been a trend of having this and other tropical species found further north more often, with publications indicating the blue runner has recently established stable populations in the Canary Islands, where it previously was rarely sighted. Some authors have attributed this northward migration to rising sea surface temperatures, possibly the result of climate change.[16 "

Sources

1.^ "Caranx crysos". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=168612. Retrieved 14 April 2009. 2.^ a b Mitchill, S.L. (1815). "The fishes of New York described and arranged". Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York (Van Winkle and Wiley) 1: 355–492. 3.^ a b c d e f g Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2009). "Caranx crysos" in FishBase. May 2009 version. 4.^ a b c Thompson, R.; J.L. Munro (1974). "The Biology, Ecology and Bionomics of the Jacks, Carangidae". In J.L. Munro. Caribbean Coral Reef Fishery Resources. Manilla: International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management. p. 82–94. ISBN 971-102241-X. 5.^ Jennings, G.H. (1999). Sea fishes of the Caribbean Sea & Gulf of Mexico: Guyana to Florida: a classified taxonomic checklist of recorded species from the West Central Atlantic area. Calypso Publications. pp. 149. ISBN 9780906301883. 6.^ a b Nichols, J.T. (1920). "On Caranx crysos, Etc.". Copeia (American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists) 81 (81): 29–30. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1435930. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 7.^ Fischer, W.; Krupp F., Schneider W., Sommer C., Carpenter K.E. & Niem V.H. (1995). Guía FAO para la identificación de especies para los fines de la pesca. Pacífico centro-oriental. Volumen II. Vertebrados - Parte 1.. Rome: FAO. pp. 953. ISBN 92-5-303409-2. http://www.fao.org/fishery/sidp/3,1/en#Ecp. 8.^ Reed, David L.; Carpenter, Kent E. & deGravelle, Martin J. (2002). "Molecular systematics of the Jacks (Perciformes: Carangidae) based on mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences using parsimony, likelihood, and Bayesian approaches". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 23 (3): 513–524. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00036-2. PMID 12099802. 9.^ a b c d e f g h i j Carpenter, K.E. (ed.) (2002). The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome: FAO. pp. 1438. ISBN 92-5-104827-4. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/y4162e/y4162e00.pdf. 10.^ a b c d e f Fischer, W; Bianchi, G. & Scott, W.B. (1981). FAO Species Identification Sheets for Fishery Purposes: Eastern Central Atlantic Vol 1. Ottawa: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/fishery/sidp/3,1/en#Eca. 11.^ a b c McEachran, J.D.; J.D. Fechhelm (2005). Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico: Scorpaeniformes to tetraodontiformes. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 1014. ISBN 9780292706347. 12.^ Berry, F.H. (1960). "Scale and scute development of the carangid fish Caranx crysos (Mitchill)". Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences 23: 59–66. 13.^ Wirtz, P.; R. Fricke & M.J. Biscoito (2008). "The coastal fishes of Madeira Island - new records and an annotated check-list". Zootaxa 1715: 1–26. ISSN 1175-5326. 14.^ Banon Diaz, R.; J.M. Casas Sanchez (1998). "First record of Caranx crysos (Mitchill, 1815), in Galician waters". Boletin del Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia 31 (1-2): 79–81. ISSN 0074-0195. 15.^ Swaby, S.E.; G.W. Potts & J. Lees (1996). "The first records of the blue runner Caranx crysos (Pisces: Carangidae) in British waters". Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 76 (2): 543–544. doi:10.1017/S0025315400030745. ISSN 0025-3154. 16.^ Brito, A.; J.M. Falcon & R. Herrera (2005). "Sobre la tropicalizacion reciente de la ictiofauna litoral de las islas Canarias y su relacion con cambios ambientales y actividades antropicas". Vieraea 33: 515–525. ISSN 0210-945X. 17.^ Alvarez-Guillen, H.; M.L.C. Garcia-Abad, M. Tapia Garcia, G.J. Villalobos Zapata & A. Yanez-Arancibia (1986). "Ichthyoecological survey in the sea grass zone of the reef lagoon of Puerto Morelos Quintana Roo Mexico Summer 1984". Anales del Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico 13 (3): 317–336. ISSN 0185-3287. 18.^ a b Goodwin, J.M.; A.G. Johnson (1986). "Age growth and mortality of blue runner Caranx crysos from the northern Gulf of Mexico". Northeast Gulf Science 8 (2): 107–114. ISSN 0148-9836. 19.^ a b Doray, M.; E. Josse, P. Gervain, L. Reynal & J. Chantrel (2007). "Joint use of echosounding, fishing and video techniques to assess the structure of fish aggregations around moored Fish Aggregating Devices in Martinique (Lesser Antilles)". Aquatic Living Resources 20 (4): 357–366. doi:10.1051/alr:2008004. 20.^ a b Stanley, D.R.; B.A. Scarborough (2003). "Seasonal and spatial variation in the biomass and size frequency distribution of fish associated with oil and gas platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico". 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"Food habits of reef fishes of the West Indies". Studies in Tropical Oceanography 5: 665–847. ISSN 0081-8720. 25.^ da Silva Monteiro, V.M. (1998). Peixes de Cabo Verde. Lisbon: Ministério do Mar, Gabinete do Secretário de Estado da Cultura. M2- Artes Gráficas, Lda. pp. 179. 26.^ Mirto, S.; M. Bellavia & T. La Rosa (2002). "Primi dati sulle abitudini alimentari di giovanili di Caranx crysos nel Golfo di Castellammare (Sicilia nord occidentale)". Biologia Marina Mediterranea 9 (1 (Supp.)): 726–728. ISSN 1123-4245. 27.^ a b Keenan, S.F.; M.C. Benfield (2003). Importance of zooplankton in the diets of Blue Runner (Caranx crysos) near offshore petroleum platforms in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. OCS Study MMS 2003-029. New Orleans: Coastal Fisheries Institute, Louisiana State University. U.S. Dept. of the Interior. pp. 129. 28.^ a b Sazima, I.; C. Sazima & J.M. da Silva (2006). "Fishes associated with spinner dolphins at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, tropical Western Atlantic: an update and overview". Neotropical Ichthyology 4 (4): 451–455. http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ni/v4n4/a09v4n4.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 29.^ Beltran-Pedrerosde, S.; T.M. Araujo Pantoja (2006). "Feeding habits of Sotalia fluviatilis in the amazonian estuary". Acta Scientiarum Biological Sciences 28 (4): 389–393. http://www.periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciBiolSci/article/viewFile/173/243. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 30.^ a b c d Goodwin, J.M.; J.H. Finucane (1985). "Reproductive biology of blue runner Caranx crysos from the eastern Gulf of Mexico". Northeast Gulf Science 7 (2): 139–146. ISSN 0148-9836. 31.^ a b c Shaw, R.F.; D.L. Drullinger (1990). "Early-Life-History Profiles, Seasonal Abundance, and Distribution of Four Species of Carangid Larvae off Louisiana, 1982 and 1983". NOAA Technical Report NMFS (US Department of Commerce) 89: 1–44. 32.^ Samira, S.S (1999). "Reproductive biology, spermatogenesis and ultrastructure of testes Caranx crysos (Mitchill, 1815)". Bulletin of the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries 25: 311–329. ISSN 1110-0354. 33.^ a b Richards, William J. (2006). Early Stages of Atlantic Fishes: An Identification Guide for the Western Central North Atlantic. CRC Press. pp. 2640 pp. ISBN 9780849319167. 34.^ Wells, R.J.D.; J.R. Rooker (2004). "Spatial and temporal patterns of habitat use by fishes associated with Sargassum mats in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico". Bulletin of Marine Science 74 (1): 81–99. http://www.tamug.edu/rooker/pdf/DavePaperBMS2004.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 35.^ Assem, S.S. (2000). "The reproductive biology and histological characteristics of pelagic carangid female Caranx crysos from the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea". Journal of the Egyptian German Society of Zoology 31 (C): 195–215. ISSN 1110-5348. 36.^ a b Fisheries and Agricultural Organisation. "Global Production Statistics 1950-2007". Blue runner. FAO. http://www.fao.org/figis/servlet/TabSelector. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 37.^ Tubino, R.D.; C. Monteiro, L.E.D. Moraes & E.T. Paes (2007). "Artisanal fisheries production in the coastal zone of Itaipu, Niteroi, RJ, Brazil". Brazilian Journal of Oceanography 55 (3): 187–197. http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bjoce/v55n3/v55n3a03.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 38.^ Ristori, Al (2002). Complete Guide to Saltwater Fishing. Woods N' Water, Inc.. pp. 59. ISBN 097074935X. 39.^ Thomas Jr., E. Donnall; E. Donnall Thomas (2007). Redfish, Bluefish, Sheefish, Snook: Far-Flung Tales of Fly-Fishing Adventure. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. pp. 256. ISBN 9781602391192. 40.^ Morris, J.G.; P. Lewin, C.W. Smith, P.A. Blake & R. Schneider (1982). "Ciguatera Fish Poisoning - Epidemiology of the Disease on St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands". American Journal of Tropical Health and Medicine 31 (3): 574–578. ISSN 0002-9637.