So characters are usually slower in the water, except for a few species such as Wotans, fishmen, merfolk, and fishman/human hybrids. Any other creature gains a sort of debuff (a decrease in stats) when in the water, which is much more apparent at early levels. But basically, everyone that doesn't a get a stat boost for being in the water will instead get a debuff (except for said hybrid). So none of you beginning characters will think that having 15% speed means you'll have that same amount when in the water.
"Just tell me already!"
Get stuck in traffic. Anyways, the debuffs are as follows: -10% perception, -10% speed, -10% agility. So as long as a character is swimming, they get these debuffs. Why? Because normal people, that belong on land, can't see as well underwater, move around as quickly, or even move around as easily as before. In other words, are there any quirks to being in the water if you aren't aquatic? None at the moment. You are basically in fish territory, so unless the character is decent in stats it will be very hard winning against a fish underwater. This debuff works, and will continue working, against all characters that don't start aquatic in nature.
"What about holding your breath? I want to sp—"
Go die in a hole somewhere. When holding your breath, without any modifications from techniques or devices, you lose 5% endurance per post. Why? Because you can't hold your breath forever obviously. So what happens when you reach 0%? You lose 20hp per post until you die or leave the water. Because you're either drowning or causing your blood capilaries to burst by pulling oxygen out of oxygen-less blood, or both. So no spamming your swimming abilities just because you don't have a devil fruit.
"Please sir, can you say some more?"
Yes I can. So all that is really left to say is devil fruit. So being submerged in water have dire consequences, as we know. Knee deep or higher is a 50% debuff to speed and agility. No I don't mean subtract 50%. I mean cut your agility and speed in half, on top on being unable to swim. Chest to neck deep is 75%, and full submersion is 98%. As we know, sometimes devil fruit users can struggle against the water. This is why we add this debuff. This debuff will allow you to struggle to stay afloat or sink slower so someone can rescue you. However, when fully submerged the devil fruit debuffs take their full effect. While fully submerged, you cannot use your devil fruit abilities, and any abnormal devil fruit abilities such as extra forms, gears, and etc are negated immediately. Each post like this reduces endurance by 10% more than normal for each post you have been submerged, so if your gura gura master has 80% endurance and falls into the water, post 1 he has 70% endurance, post 2 50%, post 3 20%, and post 4 is -20%, below zero. Once endurance has fallen to 0%, the user passes out entirely, and begans to drown and sink without resistance, having the normal health loss. This has but one exception: devil fruit users who breath underwater can resist the health damage. However, though the first post takes away no endurance, they continue to have an accumulative endurance reduction until they reach 0% and pass out, being unable to move at all. Devil fruit users cannot negate any water debuffs other than the health loss from being unable to breath.
(Note: if in a vacuum and unable to breath, the same health loss effect is applied as if underwater.)