The pH of seawater should cause little or no problem with intestinal digestion. Too high a salt content in the intestine might exceed the operational range of some enzymes and thus reduce the rate of digestion. However, one of the functions of the stomach (and in eels, the oesophagus) in osmoregulation is to dilute the incoming seawater until it is approximately equal to the osmolarity of blood, thus protecting the intestine.