This is a pelagic, oceanodromous species that usually occurs above the thermocline. Its distribution varies seasonally, reaching higher latitudes in both the north and south hemispheres only during the respective warm seasons. It is usually found in pelagic habitat in waters over 50 m depth with surface temperatures over 22°C and salinities of 35–37 ppt.

It migrates into subtropical waters to spawn, with peak spawning occurring in early summer. The spawning areas are found in deep and blue oceanic waters, generally at high temperatures ranging from 20–29°C except in the south Atlantic gyrals, and high surface salinities (over 35 ppt).

Lucena-Fredóu and Asano-Filho (2006) found individuals ranging from 153–290 cm (upper jaw fork length (FL) in the Brazilian northern coast. The 290 cm animal is the largest recorded to date, with a weight of 120 kg. Nóbrega et al. (2009) caught individuals from 105–207 cm of fork length (FL) on Brazilian northeast.

Longevity is estimated at 15 years (Ortiz et al. 2003). Hazin (et al. in prep) studying individuals from Brazilian northeast, found a size at first sexual maturity (at L50) of 138.5 cm of low jaw fork length (LJFL) for males and 145 cm for females, and a higher mean of gonad index in May and June for both genders. The age of maturity was estimated to be 2.5–4 years of age (Collette et al. 2011). There is no apparent sexual dimorphism but females attain larger sizes than males.

Given an observed longevity of 15 years and a length of maturity (L50) of approximately 145–160 cm, we infer an age of 50% maturity of 2.5–4 years (both sexes) and a generation length of 4.5–6.5 years (Collette et al. 2011).

White Marlin are known to frequently kill or stun their food by spearing it or hitting it with their bill (Nakamura 1985). Squids are an important part of their diet but they also feed on crustaceans and a wide variety of fishes such as dolphinfish, jacks, and flyingfishes (Nakamura 1985, Vaske et al. 2004).

The all-tackle game fish record is of a 82.5 kg fish caught off Vitoria, Brazil in 1979 (IGFA 2011).