A mistype in the original volume in which Eduard Rüppell named the species led to the combination Carangoides caeruleopinnatus, which has incorrectly spread through the literature.

[3] The species was first scientifically described and named by the German naturalist Eduard Rüppell in 1830 based on a specimen collected from the waters of the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia, which was designated to be the holotype.

[4] In the volume in which the species is described, an apparent mistype produces the name Caranx caeruleopinnatus, which has also widely, albeit incorrectly, entered the scientific literature.

The species has also been independently renamed five times; the first as Carangoides ophthalmotaenia by Pieter Bleeker in 1852 and most recently as Citula diversa by Gilbert Whitley in 1940.

[7] In life, the coastal trevally is bluish green above, fading to a silvery grey on the underside, with the sides having many small yellow spots.

In the Pacific Ocean, its range extends north to Taiwan and Japan, and east to a number of small island groups, including Tonga, Samoa and New Caledonia.

[10] Juveniles have been recorded in Natal estuaries,[11] and in shallow bays in northern Australia,[12] but the movements of the species are poorly understood.

[14] The mouth of the coastal trevally is soft, and the teeth fairly weak, which prevents the capture of larger prey items.

The coastal trevally is of little or no importance to most fisheries throughout its range, occasionally taken as bycatch in finfish and prawn operations,[5] using hook and line, gill nets and other various types of trap.