Mark Newton from Hertfordshire fell into a coma in 1996 after surfacing too quickly while diving.
The same thing occurs in scuba divers who surface too quickly after a deep dive.
Like human divers who surface too quickly, some even get the bends (decompression sickness).
The bends, or decompression sickness, is a threat to scuba divers who surface too quickly; nitrogen that dissolved into their blood when they were under heavy water pressure comes out and collects as bubbles in their joints and blood vessels, causing pain and, in extreme cases, death.
Sonar may also affect the way some animals dive and even cause decompression sickness--called "the bends" in divers--if they surface too quickly (ScienceNOW, 14 December 2007).
Surfacing too quickly could also give them the bends, in which bubbles of gas form in their blood due to the rapid changes in pressure.
Newfound tissue damage in beached whales and other cetaceans is suggestive of decompression sickness, which afflicts divers when they surface too quickly from a great depth.
Scientists still need to figure out if sonar forces the whales to surface too quickly or whether it might damage tissue another way.
Many of these beached whales have been found with physical injuries, such as bleeding in the ears, brain, and other tissues, and with large bubbles in their organs damage that's similar to the "bends," an ailment scuba divers can suffer if they surface too quickly.
