Seals

Ed Yong is the author of two New York Times bestsellers and won the Pulitzer Prize for covering the coronavirus pandemic. 

I’d just read his chapter about seals, sea lions and walruses – collectively known as pinnipeds – before our family visit of the Ocean Park yesterrday. Ed Yong gives me even more knowledge of marine animals. 

As I watched the whiskers protruding from the harbor seals’ snout, I remember how the seals are making meticulous efforts to keep the whiskers warm, even when diving in freezing water. That’s to stop the tissues from stiffening and allows free movement of the whiskers. In case you are wondering (I was), their whiskers are key sensory organs. The sensitivity of harbor seals’ whiskers was discovered by a scientist team in 2001 when two harbor seals, Henry and Nick, could follow the underwater path of a mini-submarine. Henry and Nick were able to clung to the trail even when their eyes were blind-folded and their ears were plugged by headphones. It wasn’t until their whiskers were covered by a stocking that they lost the sub. 

Look closer at the harbor seals’ whiskers, Ed Yong can see the magic design of anatomy: they are slightly flattened and angled so that the bladed edge always cuts into the water. Armed with an undulating surface, the whiskers can dramatically reduce the vortices left by the whiskers themselves. That means the seals are able to tone down the signals from their own bodies and enhance those left by their prey. 

How clever.