Watching the “High Seas” episode of Our Planet and watching camera crews in these special pressure-resistant submarines capture footage of some pretty fragile looking fish, some of them are pretty sizable too. How are they not crush by the weight of the depths?
In: Biology
All organisms are mostly water. Even your individual cells are mostly filled with water. That water inside you and those fish doesn’t compress any more than the surrounding water does.
Gas-filled cavities like lungs and swim bladders on the other hand don’t handle compression so well. That’s why deep-sea creatures have many adaptations to prevent hollow areas in their bodies.
And pressure changes remain a problem. Gas compresses really well. That means that at depth, a body can contain more gas, for instance, dissolved oxygen in the blood, than it can contain at the surface.
If you pull a deep-sea fish up out of the depths too quickly, it’ll die because all of the gas dissolved in its tissues will expand.
Latest Answers