The leerfish or garrick (''Lichia amia'') is a species of

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family Carangidae, and is native to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and the coastal waters of western

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

to the coastal waters of eastern

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

.Van Der Elst, R. (1993). ''A Guide to the Common Sea Fishes of Southern Africa''. Struik Publishers. . Also recorded in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

.Black Sea Fishes Check List
These fish can reach 1.5 m in length and more than 30 kg in weight. They inhabit the coastal wave zone where they form small shoals to hunt other smaller fish, favouring mullets.

References

Trachinotinae Fauna of Portugal Fish of South Africa Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Marine fauna of West Africa Marine fauna of Southern Africa Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Ray-finned fish-stub