DORY

small boat with pointed ends and high, flaring sides. A dory may be up to 22 feet (7 m) long and commonly has a narrow, V-shaped stern and a narrow, flat bottom. It is a seaworthy boat that can be rowed, engine-driven, or sailed; it is used extensively by New England fishermen. The dory skiff is shorter and has lower sides and a square stern, but otherwise it resembles the dory. also called John Dory, any of several marine fishes of the family Zeidae (order Zeiformes), found worldwide in moderately deep waters. The members of the family are large-mouthed fish, deep-bodied but thin from side to side. The John Dory (Zeus faber), a food fish of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, is one of the better-known species. It ranges from the shore to waters about 200 m (650 feet) deep and reaches a maximum length of about 90 cm (3 feet). Grayish, with a distinctive, yellow-ringed black spot on each side, it has long pelvic fins, long, filamentous dorsal-fin spines, and rows of spines on the belly and at the bases of the dorsal and anal fins. A similar species, Z. japonicus, is found in the Pacific.