Fish don't get bent in nature; at least not in the ocean. The dissolved gas in the fish's blood and tissues is essentially at equillibrium with the water. The dissolved gas in the water is at MOST 1 ATA, regardless of the depth. Fish can get intravenous gaseous bubbles (that often collect in the fins and eyes) in an aquarium if there is some sort of cavitation in the pump/plumbing/filtration system that causes super-saturation of gas in the aquarium water (I understand this also happens to salmon at dam by-passes). The only barotrauma fish get from being brought up quickly from great depths is that their swim-bladders (a fish's BCD) expand and crush other organs. As far as I know (I'm a reef-fish guy, not a halibut-guy), halibut lack swim bladders. An interesting aside: people have historically tried to deal with the swim-bladder expansion problem by building hyperbaric chambers to bring fish to the surface from deep water. Trouble is, most use gas in direct contact with the water to pressurize the chamber, which means the fish DO get "real" bends. Aloha, Rich
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