Flower Gardens Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary sits atop salt dome formations roughly 100 miles off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico, reached by liveaboard boats out of Galveston or Freeport. The site consists of coral cap reefs rising from the seafloor, with a maximum depth around 18 metres over healthy coral cover for a Gulf of Mexico reef, including large brain and star coral formations. It is known for exceptional water clarity by Gulf standards, an annual mass coral spawning event that draws divers specifically for that phenomenon, and hammerhead sharks reported at the East and West Flower Garden Banks. Divers have also reported manta rays and whale sharks passing through. The dive is rated advanced, in part because of the open ocean conditions encountered this far offshore, and access is limited to multi-day boat trips out of the mainland.

Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.

• Boulder star coralOrbicella franksiReported here · unconfirmed
• Symmetrical Brain CoralPseudodiploria strigosaReported here · unconfirmed
• Mustard Hill CoralPorites astreoidesReported here · unconfirmed
• Greater Star CoralMontastraea cavernosaReported here · unconfirmed
• Manta rayManta rayReported here · unconfirmed
• Whale SharkRhincodon typusReported here · unconfirmed