Credit: Cat Wofford/UF/IFAS/Release 'Em Right |
Scuba divers are all too familiar with the bends, the painful condition a rapid pressure change ascending from as little as 30 feet of water can cause. It happens to fish, too.
Earlier this month, reported the Galveston County Daily News, a group of researchers from Texas A&M University's Sea Grant program headed offshore in search of red drum. These fish lately had shown signs of barotrauma, a severe bloating that occurs when gases in the body cavity and internal organs rapidly expand as the fish is reeled to the surface. |