- About
- With 500+ faculty, staff and students and three campus locations, the Batten School & VIMS are equipped to tackle pressing challenges through research, education and advisory service.
  Learn More
- Research & Advisory
- Purple marsh crabs are significantly disrupting carbon cycling in salt marshes along the East Coast of the U.S., according to a study led by Batten School & VIMS scientists.
  Learn More
- Batten School
- The R. Todd Stravitz Scholars Program will provide full tuition support for students pursuing the new bachelor’s degree in coastal & marine sciences at the Batten School & VIMS.
  
  Read More
- Engage
- Popular, free camps enable rising third through eighth graders to learn about the Chesapeake Bay, coastal ecosystems and environmental stewardship.
  
  Read More
- News & Events
- National TRAP Program funds large-scale cleanup of discarded fishing gear, first round of subawards totaling more than $1.4M supports 11 projects focused on removing derelict fishing gear from coastal waters in nine U.S. states and Palau.
  
  Learn More
- Giving
- As an expression of parental pride in their daughter, Taylor Spencer ‘83 and Martha Spencer recently established an undergraduate field research endowment at the Batten School & VIMS.
  
  Read More

Blue runner

Caranx crysos

Information and species illustrations courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Species Information
Size Maximum to about 62 cm fork length reported, but not documented; common to 35 cm fork length. All-tackle IGFA world angling record 5.05 kg.
Diagnostic characters Body elongate, moderately deep, and compressed. Eye moderate (diameter contained about 4 to 5 times in head length) with moderate adipose eyelid. Upper jaw reaching to under mid-eye. Upper jaw with an irregular outer row of small canines flanked by an inner band; lower jaw teeth in a single row. Gill rakers 10 to 14 upper, 25 to 28 lower. Dorsal fin with 8 spines followed by 1 spine and 22 to 25 soft rays; anal fin with 2 spines followed by 1 spine and 19 to 21 soft rays; dorsal- and anal-fin lobes slightly elongate (dorsal lobe contained about 6.4 to 7.6 times in fork length); pectoral fins falcate, longer than head. Lateral line with a strong, short anterior arch, straight portion with 46 to 56 scutes; scales small and cycloid (smooth to touch); chest completely scaly. Bilateral paired caudal keels present. Vertebrae 10 precaudal and 15 caudal; post-temporal bones hyperostotic (greatly enlarged) in adults. Colour: body light olive to dark bluish green above, silvery grey to golden below; juveniles with about 7 dark body bands.
Habitat, biology, and fisheries A schooling species, primarily inshore, not common around reefs. Probably spawns offshore off the southeastern USA; young often found with sargassum; feeds primarily on fish (usually silvery species), shrimps, crabs, and other invertebrates. Caught with haul seines, lampara nets, purse seines, gill nets, and handlines; also caught sport fishing with rod-and-reel. Much of Florida catch used for bait; marketed fresh or salted in other localities; edibility poor to satisfactory
Distribution Both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in western Atlantic from Bermuda, Nova Scotia to São Paulo, Brazil, throughout the Bahamas, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean including West Indies; possibly conspecific with the eastern Pacific, Caranx caballus Günther, 1868.
Citations Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 1: Introduction, molluscs, crustaceans, hagfishes, sharks, batoid fishes, and chimaeras. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1-600. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 601-1374. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) 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. 2002. pp. 1375-2127.