Atlantic Crevalle Jack

The crevalle jack is one of the largest members of Caranx, growing to a known maximum length of 125 cm and a weight of 32 kg, although it is generally uncommon at lengths greater than 65 cm. Unverified reports of fish over 150 cm may also be attributable to this species. The crevalle jack is morphologically similar to a number of other deep-bodied carangids, having an elongate, moderately compressed body with the dorsal profile more convex than the ventral profile, particularly anteriorly. The eye is covered by a well-developed adipose eyelid, and the posterior extremity of the jaw is vertically under or past the posterior margin of the eye. The dorsal fin is in two parts, the first consisting of eight spines and the second of one spine followed by 19 to 21 soft rays. The anal fin consists of two anteriorly detached spines followed by one spine and 16 or 17 soft rays.

The crevalle jack inhabits the tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean, ranging extensively along both the eastern American coastline and the western African and European coastlines. In the western Atlantic, the southernmost record comes from Uruguay, with the species ranging north along the Central American coastline, and throughout the Caribbean and many of the numerous archipelagos within. The species is found throughout the Greater Antilles, however it is absent from the leeward Lesser Antilles, with its distribution being patchy throughout other Caribbean archipelagos. 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 northwest Atlantic islands. The crevalle jack is also known from Saint Helena Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

The crevalle jack is a powerful predatory fish which predominantly takes other small fishes as prey at all stages of its life, with various invertebrates generally being of secondary importance to its diet. Several studies conducted on the species' diet over its range have found other aspects of its diet vary widely, including the specific types of prey the species takes and the change in diet with age. The most detailed of these studies was conducted in the Southern USA, which showed the species diet comprised between 74% and 94% fish. The remainder of the diet was various prawns, shrimps, crabs, molluscs and stomatopods. The types of fish taken varied throughout the range, with members of Clupeidae, Sparidae, Carangidae and Trichiuridae all taken in variable amounts, usually with members of one family dominating the local diet.

The crevalle jack is one of the most abundant large carangids in the Atlantic Ocean, with at least two systematic studies placing it within the top five most abundant species of that region, namely lagoons in Nigeria and Chiapas, Mexico. Seasonal movements are known from both the American and African coastlines, with both juveniles and adults appearing to migrate. In North America, young individuals recruited to northern estuaries are known to move to warmer tropical waters at the onset of winter to escape possible hypothermia. At least one hypothermia-driven mass mortality of 200 crevalle jacks has been reported from the Slocum River in Massachusetts, indicating low-temperature mortality is a major concern for north-ranging groups of the species, with temperatures below 9.0 °C apparently being lethal to the fish.

The crevalle jack is a highly important species to commercial fisheries throughout its range, with the greatest quantity of the species taken from the eastern Atlantic. In some fisheries, it is one of the most abundant species and therefore of great importance in these regions. In the Americas, the reported annual catch has ranged between 150 and 1300 tonnes since 1950, with catches since 2000 ranging between 190 and 380 tonnes. Most of the western Atlantic catch is from Florida, although Caribbean fisheries, such as Trinidad, take considerable quantities of the fish. The eastern Atlantic catch statistics do not differentiate longfin crevalle jack from crevalle jack, thus must be considered a composite dataset. This region only comprises catch data from Angola, Ghana, São Tome, and Principe.