How do fish and other marine animals survive in deep water?

As a rule, at normal atmospheric pressure, water molecules inside a living cell form a network resembling a tetrahedron. If this network changes shape, for example, due to external pressure, biochemical processes in the cells cannot take place. If this happens on a body-wide scale, the organism dies.

Scientists have found that in deep-sea creatures, the molecule TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide) creates a structural anchor, so that the water can resist the powerful pressure under which it is located. The deeper an animal lives, the more TMAO in its cells.