Commercial fishery

The rainbow runner is rarely targeted as a commercial fish, however, large amounts of the species often turn up as bycatch from tuna and shark fisheries, with the bycatch from the West Indian Tuna Fishery alone totaling 720-1877 t between 1985-94. In recent years this figure has increased, with global catches as estimated by the FAO peaking at 18,940 t per year in 1998 before declining to around 15,000 t per year in 2000/01. This bycatch is nearly always kept and sold at market, either fresh, salted or frozen. The methods used to take most rainbow runner are purse seines, as well as hook and line techniques and other native fishing methods. At least one case of ciguatera poisoning has been reported from this species on the Virgin Islands.