The color is pale yellow to off-white with silvery stripe along the flanks and a white swimbladder which can be seen through its flesh.

[2] Membras martinica occurs in the western central Atlantic as far north as New York south to Veracruz in Mexico.

[1] Membras martinica is a pelagic species which occurs in a variety of different habitat types.

The normal habitat is exposed shoreline and beaches where there is a firm substrate is also occurs on coastal rivers.

[5] It was described by Achille Valenciennes in 1835 as Atherina martinica from a type locality of Martinique,[6] the island from which the specific name is derived.