The mighty John Dory - a sure sign of summer in full swing when landings of JDs are at their peak. This extravagant looking fish is a great favourite with chefs as it produces boneless and meaty fillets with a skin thats crisps up beautifully when cooked just right. All the best fish restaurants in Cornwall put this fish on their menus whenever they get the chance. Check out any cook book from the likes of Floyd, Stein and Outlaw and John Dory feature as a firm favourite!
They are a strange looking, but delicious fish a, John Dory's bizarre shape and long fins make it look from another planet. It has a large mouth which is used to suck in very large prey items such as fish and shrimps. It has a black spot on each side of the body which is said to be the thumb print of St Peter - the only other fish to do so is the haddock. It has a fantastic scientific name being named after Zeus, king of the Greek gods.
Most John Dory landed in Newlyn are caught by the inshore trawlers, netters, the visiting prawn boats also catch them in number at certain times. In recent years a number of huge Dutch seine netters have landed trips that John Dory - caught in much deeper water. A trend of great concern for the future if these boats became a regular feature of the south west fishing effort. The unusual shape of them make it difficult to escape form any sort of net they come into contact with and they are not subject to any from of quota.
In 2020 a total of 148 tonnes of John dory were landed to Cornish ports with a value of £649k (MMO data).
