Elkhorn Slough Seal

Those dripping whiskers are more than decoration. Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) hunt with them, reading the faint hydrodynamic trail a fish leaves in its wake, a disturbance that lingers in the water for seconds after the prey has passed. In experiments, blindfolded seals could still track and follow that invisible path by feel alone. Here at Elkhorn Slough, a seal raises its rounded, spotted face from the silvery shallows, whiskers beaded with water and trailing a strand of eelgrass.