Can the water pressure be so high in some places underwater that gas bubbles will be trapped in place, unable to rise up?
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Yes, sort of. Throttling is the general term. The bubbles can constrict flow for a short time, forcing pressure to increase upstream until it overcomes the blockage created by the bubble. This is more or less how many geysers operate.
The bubbles will not permanently block flow. The bubbles will generally compress as pressure increases and then get carried along with the flow, but can sometimes produce vapor lock for short periods. The system will not stop dead and ignore the existence of the blockage (the fluids will still be impelled to move, and since there is blockage, pressure rises until it exceeds the capacity of the blocking mechanism to prevent additional movement).
It does sometimes occur that there is only a partial blockage created by formation of a bubble and the bubble remains in place, restricting, but not stopping, flow. This sort of thing happens in pipes all the time.
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