Distribution
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. In the western Atlantic, the species southernmost record comes from Maceio, Brazil, with the species ranging north along the Central American coastline, and throughout the Caribbean and the numerous archipelagos throughout. 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. 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. The blue runner is found throughout the Mediterranean, having been recorded from nearly all the countries on its shores. The species is rarely found north of Portugal in the north east Atlantic, although records do exist of isolated catches from Madeira Island and Galicia, Spain. The furthest north it has been reported is southern Great Britain, where two specimens were taken in 1992 and 1993. 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.
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