Distribution and Habitat
The golden trevally is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the Indian Ocean, the species is distributed from South Africa along the east African coastline, including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Its distribution extends east along the Indian and South East Asian coastlines, and south through Indonesia and northern Australia. Golden trevally are recorded from many Indian Ocean islands including Madagascar, The Seychelles and The Maldives. In the Pacific, the species is spread throughout the South East Asian and Indonesian archipelago north mainland China and Japan and south to eastern Australia and New Zealand. Golden trevally have been recorded from many central Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, with their distribution extending to central America. Here its range extends from the Gulf of California in the north to Colombia in the south.
The golden trevally predominantly occupies inshore waters of varying substrate, although is know to occur on deeper continental shelf reefs in Australia. In coastal areas the species inhabits rocky and coral reefs as well as open sand flats where it forages for food. A systematic study in northern Australia indicated it to be one of the only species to be approximately equally distributed in both reef and soft-bottom habitats. Golden trevally appear to prefer clear water to turbid waters, and thus is only encountered rarely in low turbidity estuarine environments. One known exception to this was the capture of several individuals in a shallow mangrove swamp in Baja California which appeared to be foraging for prey.
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