[Beefcake]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

... Humans acclimated to deeper ocean pressures cannot ascend too quickly or they get the bends because the nitrogen in their bodies come out of solution. The same thing will happen to any organism. ...

This statement isn't entirely correct. The only reason we have nitrogen in our system is because we breathe air (made up of oxygen, nitrogen, and an insignificant amount of other gases such as helium, etc). The nitrogen comes out of solution because unlike oxygen, our body can't metabolize the increased volume of the gas (due to the decreased pressure at shallower depths). Deep water organisms that don't come to the surface and breath air (incl. nitrogen) into their system won't have this same issue.

I'm no marine biologist, but I assume your statement that all (or at least many) organisms are affected (albeit in different ways) by decompression.

- Diving nerd