Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Map of Flower Garden Banks
Location	Gulf of Mexico, United States
Coordinates	27°55′N 93°43′W / 27.917°N 93.717°W / 27.917; -93.717[1]
Area	160 sq mi (410 km2)
Established	January 17, 1992; 32 years ago (1992-01-17) Expanded October 11, 1996, and January 19, 2021
Governing body	NOAA National Ocean Service
flowergarden.noaa.gov

The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is a United States National Marine Sanctuary located 100 nautical miles (120 mi; 190 km) off of Galveston, Texas, in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. It contains the northernmost coral reefs in the United States.

Underlying salt domes forced the seafloor upward in various areas of the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the formation of seamounts and ocean banks. Conditions of the Gulf of Mexico were conducive to reef-building, which started roughly ten to fifteen thousand years ago.

Two reefs, East Flower Garden Bank (EFGB) and West Flower Garden Bank (WFGB), made up Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) when it was initially created in 1992. In 1996, Stetson Bank was added to the sanctuary. The three banks are not contiguous.

The sanctuary contains many aquatic species. Almost three hundred species of fish and over twenty species of coral are found in the sanctuary along with a wide variety of crustaceans, sponges, and plants. FGBNMS provides habitat for many protected and/or threatened species including marine mammals, sharks, rays, and sea turtles. Many fish species important to recreational and commercial fisheries inhabit the banks.

The sanctuary's administrative offices and laboratories are located in a part of the former Fort Crockett in Galveston, Texas. Research Vessel MANTA is also located in Galveston, and provides a working platform for researchers. A system of mooring buoys, which reduces resource impacts from anchoring, is maintained by FGBNMS staff.

Since 2011, the Foundation funded annual scientific cruise ships to monitor the health of the coral in the sanctuary. Researchers record conditions and detect early warning signs consisting of different impacts of climate change and possible environmental crime. Scientists use the long-term data to establish baselines, understand changes and assess why reefs become unhealthy. This ongoing record was priceless in 2016 when the Sanctuary discovered a vast coral die-off in its East Bank. While the event has stabilized, the Foundation continues to dedicate additional funding to support further observation. The Foundation also funds economic impact studies on commercial and recreational activity in the area to understand use and inform protection planning and potential expansion.^[2]