JOHN DORY

Fillet size:
100 - 300g

Whole size:
0.8 - 2.5kg

John Dory, the premium fish for white table cloth dinning.

Identifying features:  Olive-brown with a golden sheen, and a dark spot on the center of each side.  Tiny scales and a very smooth skin.  The body is almost oval, very compressed and it has a large head and upright jaw.  The dorsal-fin spine membranes exstend well beyond the spines and there is a single row of spiny edged scutes along the belly and at the base of dorsal and anal fins.

Comparisons:  Dories are distinct from all other fishes, with the exception of their deepwater relatives the oreos from which they differ in having a smoother, paler skin and smaller eye.  The John Dory, with it's dark fingerprint spot and long filamentous dorsal fin, is an unmistakable member of the group.

Fillet:  White firm flesh.  Very deep, short and tapering sharply. Rarely skinned with small and barely detectable scales.

Habitat:  Quite common in the coastal water of northern New Zealand, particularly from Bay of Plenty northwards, but not abundant in any locality.  This species does not school.

Catching methods:  Longliner, Danish seining and trawled. 
(John Dory are hunters and generally only take live bait when fishing with hook and line.  This is why you will quite often see a small whole snapper in it's belly when the fish comes off longliners.)