Seals use their whiskers to hunt. Not Navy Seals, although they may in some way also, but this article is about lowercase seals. Not Seal the musician either, as far as I know, he doesn’t even have whiskers. This is about different seals. Pinnipeds are marine mammals with flippers and blubber.
One of the ways whiskers, or vibrissae, are used is as a flow sensor. In humans, vibrissae are nose hairs that act as filters, while in cats, they’re used to hunt in the dark. Vibrissae can be used to sense air currents, changes in pressure, or to sense things. They’re embedded in the sensory system and are very sensitive. They can tell you that a crevice is too small for you to fit in, sense the air flow of a running prey animal, help an animal in flight orient itself, and act as signals of intent or mood. Cats have around 200 nerve cells on every whisker, while seals may have 1500.
Biomimetic seal whisker-inspired fully printed MEMS sensor. Image courtesy of Tekin et al., Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2026).
These whiskers not only let them orient their bodies in the dark or sense rock formations, but also let seals track where prey has been. Through being sensitive to hydrodynamic trails. These trails are pressure changes and swirling vortexes in the water left behind by swimming animals. They’re also called wake-induced vortexes. These trails can show direction, speed, size, or even what kind of animal was there. So it’s kind of like tracking specific water footprints. When hunting in the dark, it’s easy to see how valuable these whiskers could be. Certain seals have evolved specialized morphologies to better track their prey.
Seal species, whisker morphologies and sensing mechanisms. Image courtesy of Tekin et al., Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2026).
Now researchers have made a 3D printed “artificial follicle–sinus complex flow sensor” mimicking the setup the seals have. They made a novel elastomeric resin and studied the whiskers of harbor seals, gray seals, and sea lions. They then designed and printed a compliant structure and used Boston Micro Fabrication‘s (BMF) system to 3D print the entire device in one step. Overall, the resolution was less than 10 μm. The team then put graphene nanoplatelet ink into the printed channels, turning the device into a piezoresistive sensor. Tests showed that these sensors could work for at least 3000 cycles, sensing strain in vortexes just like the seals do. The team used a GOM ATOS III Triple Scan 8 M to scan different seal whiskers to get the target geometries. They found that the harbor and gray seal whiskers were better at sensing and differentiating than the sea lions’ whiskers were. Later, an 8-cm-long whisker was tested for 3000 cycles.
The researchers worked at the Department of Bioinspired MEMS and Biomedical Devices (BMBD) of the Engineering and Technology Institute (ENTEG) at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Engincan Te
Seals use their whiskers to hunt. Not Navy Seals, although they may in some way also, but this article is about lowercase seals. Not Seal the musician either, as far as I know, he doesn’t even have whiskers. This is about different seals. Pinnipeds are marine mammals with flippers and blubber.
One of the ways whiskers, or vibrissae, are used is as a flow sensor. In humans, vibrissae are nose hairs that act as filters, while in cats, they’re used to hunt in the dark. Vibrissae can be used to sense air currents, changes in pressure, or to sense things. They’re embedded in the sensory system and are very sensitive. They can tell you that a crevice is too small for you to fit in, sense the air flow of a running prey animal, help an animal in flight orient itself, and act as signals of intent or mood. Cats have around 200 nerve cells on every whisker, while seals may have 1500.
Biomimetic seal whisker-inspired fully printed MEMS sensor. Image courtesy of Tekin et al., Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2026).
These whiskers not only let them orient their bodies in the dark or sense rock formations, but also let seals track where prey has been. Through being sensitive to hydrodynamic trails. These trails are pressure changes and swirling vortexes in the water left behind by swimming animals. They’re also called wake-induced vortexes. These trails can show direction, speed, size, or even what kind of animal was there. So it’s kind of like tracking specific water footprints. When hunting in the dark, it’s easy to see how valuable these whiskers could be. Certain seals have evolved specialized morphologies to better track their prey.
Seal species, whisker morphologies and sensing mechanisms. Image courtesy of Tekin et al., Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2026).
Now researchers have made a 3D printed “artificial follicle–sinus complex flow sensor” mimicking the setup the seals have. They made a novel elastomeric resin and studied the whiskers of harbor seals, gray seals, and sea lions. They then designed and printed a compliant structure and used Boston Micro Fabrication‘s (BMF) system to 3D print the entire device in one step. Overall, the resolution was less than 10 μm. The team then put graphene nanoplatelet ink into the printed channels, turning the device into a piezoresistive sensor. Tests showed that these sensors could work for at least 3000 cycles, sensing strain in vortexes just like the seals do. The team used a GOM ATOS III Triple Scan 8 M to scan different seal whiskers to get the target geometries. They found that the harbor and gray seal whiskers were better at sensing and differentiating than the sea lions’ whiskers were. Later, an 8-cm-long whisker was tested for 3000 cycles.
The researchers worked at the Department of Bioinspired MEMS and Biomedical Devices (BMBD) of the Engineering and Technology Institute (ENTEG) at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Engincan Te