Flower Garden Banks

Flower garden banks national marine sanctuary is one of 14 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments protected by noaa s office of national marine sanctuaries.

Flower garden banks. Unlike its two cousins 35 miles away stetson bank has a base of siltstone and claystone. Noaa s national marine sanctuaries program partnered with noaa s national centers for environmental information to create an on line gis based mapping tool of the flower garden banks sanctuary. The east flower garden banks stetson bank and the west flower garden banks. Although the reefs of flower garden banks national marine sanctuary fgbnms are normally considered the healthiest in the region on july 25 2016 sport divers on the m v fling reported green hazy water huge patches of ugly white mats on corals and sponges and dead animals littering the bottom at east flower garden bank buoy 4.

Welcome to the virtual dive gallery of flower garden banks national marine sanctuary. We dove on the east and west flower garden bank a natural gas platform and stetson bank. I did a weekend trip aboard the m v fling. National marine sanctuary located 100 nautical miles 185 kilometers offshore of galveston texas in the northwestern gulf of mexico.

Each site is unique but truly amazing and abundant in marine life. Pair your smartphone with a virtual reality headset or goggles of your choice and click the. Since 2011 the foundation funded annual scientific cruises to monitor the health of the coral in the sanctuary. The flower garden banks actually comprise three separate regions.

Click on an image below to start your dive. We saw a giant manta ray a school of eagle rays a sandbar shark numerous. Fishermen discovered them in the late 1800s and named them after the brightly colored sponges and invertebrates they sometimes pulled out of the water. These sanctuary views can be enjoyed on a personal computer or a smartphone.

While flower garden banks offers outstanding recreation its distant location makes it a major center for research and conservation activities many of which are supported by the national marine sanctuary foundation. Bathymetry biological information management zones oil and gas activities oceanographic data and remotely operated vehicle tracks with associated. Stetson bank is the third reef of the flower garden banks national marine sanctuary trio of jewels located in the northwestern gulf of mexico 75 to 115 miles off the texas coast. The flower garden banks national marine sanctuary is a u s.

It is the only sanctuary site located in the gulf of mexico. East and west flower garden banks and nearby stetson bank are unique underwater features festooned with colorful sponges textured sea plants and myriad marine life living among more than 20 species of hard corals.