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Blind seals

Did you ever wonder how a blind seal survives in the wild? Seals are used to hunting with low visibility. Most seal species look for their food dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of metres underwater. Light does not penetrate as deeply into the sea. As a result, seals often hunt in the dark. Although their eyes are large and see more underwater than we do, it is the whiskers that are indispensable when hunting.

Laatst geupdate op 14-02-2024

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Whiskers of a seal

Seals have very sensitive whiskers, which allow them to detect the smallest movements in water. As such, they find their way through the water current and feel the vibrations given off by fish. These are picked up by the hundreds of nerves in each whisker. Minutes after a fish has swum away, a seal can still detect it. This is because a seal's whiskers are not smooth, as a dog's or cat's whisker, but ribbed. Therefore, they glide smoothly through the water.

This allows Blind, the blind seal seen for years by our researchers in the Dollard, to find enough food without seeing anything.

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  • Whiskers of a seal

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