haaf fish

plural haaf fishes

1. ScotlandShetlandcountableuncountablefishingThe bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus).

   But their most favourite vehicle is the skin of the larger seal or Haaf fish, for as this animal is amphibious they can land on some rock, and there cast off their sea-dress and assume their own shape, and amuse themselves as they will in the upper world.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 265

   1 more example

   Whilst the rowers rested off the island of Uyea, our boat was visited by one of the large seals of the country (Phoca barbata), named by the natives a Haaf fish, because it usually appears at that remote distance from the main coast, which, in the language of the fishermen, is called the Haaf.

   1891, Samuel Hibbert, A Description of the Shetland Islands, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, page 166