If divers ascend too quickly, the drop in pressure causes nitrogen dissolved in their blood and body tissues to form bubbles, and they suffer the potentially fatal malady known as decompression sickness, or the bends.
After 17 min, the divers ascend up the reef slope from 30 m to 10 m where the feeder hand-feeds grey reef Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos and whitetip reef sharks Triaenodon obesus with fish scraps and fillets.
This is much like a SCUBA diver ascending from high pressure at depth and suffering the bends as dissolved nitrogen bubbles in the diver's blood.
When the diver ascends, the symptoms terminate with essentially no aftereffects or permanent harm done.
As the diver ascends to the surface, he commonly feels relief.
Compression sickness occurs when a diver ascends too fast and nitrogen in the bloodstream that is normally expelled by the lungs forms bubbles.
When the diver ascends, time must be allowed for the additional gases to be expelled slowly or they will form bubbles in the tissues.
When the pressure is released as a diver ascends too quickly, the gas expands into bubbles; the resulting organic distress, often called the bends, can be fatal.
If a scuba diver ascends too rapidly, the nitrogen that he has absorbed from his air tank will cause excess bubbles to form in his veins and tissues.
If the diver ascends too quickly for the ever-expanding nitrogen to be exhaled, the nitrogen forms bubbles in tissues or the bloodstream, and those bubbles coalesce into bigger ones.
If a diver ascends too rapidly, the nitrogen can bubble out of solution, causing a painful and potentially fatal condition called "the bends".
