Normally, it travels in fairly large schools and is common offshore in the vicinity of New York City, where it is known as "skipjack" because of its habit of jumping from the water.

Atlantic bonito eat mackerel, menhaden, alewives, silversides, sand lances, and other fishes, as well as squid.

Bonito have also been caught using pound nets, and amongst other species as bycatch during the traditional fishing practice of Almadraba in addition to the main catch, the far larger Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Thought by most fishermen to be inferior to tuna as a food fish, possibly because of the greater oiliness, it is sometimes used as bait.

Bonito is a popular food fish in the Mediterranean; its flesh is similar to tuna and mackerel, and its size is intermediate between the two.