Species: Trachinotus falcatus, Permit, Permit Pompano

Trachinotus falcatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Permit, Permit Pompano

Body short, deep, compressed; upper and lower profiles similar; snout blunt; mouth reaches under eye; top jaw extendible; jaw teeth small, conical, curved, absent in juveniles >20 cm FL; gill rakers 5-7 + 11-14; dorsal fin with VI short, stout spines, 1st resorbed in adults, 18-20 (17-21) rays; anal fin II + I, 17-18 (16-19) rays; dorsal & anal fin front lobes moderately long; base of anal about same length as that of soft dorsal; no finlets after 2nd dorsal and anal fins; pectoral fin < head length; tail base slender, without notches above & below; tail strongly forked; no scutes (hard, spiny scales) on lateral line; body scales oval.

Silvery, bluish grey to iridescent blue above; sometimes a dark oval blotch on mid side; large fish with pectorals, anal and tail fins blackish. Juveniles: changeable, black to silver with orange blotch at base of anal fin, lobe of that fin black.

Reaches 149 cm; 36 kg.

Pelagic and near bottom in shallow sandy and muddy bottoms, and around reefs.

Depth range 0-80 m.

Massachusetts to southern Brazil; the entire Greater Caribbean.