Long-Term Monitoring at the East and West Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 1998-2001: Final Report

Personal Author: Dokken QR; MacDonald IR; Tunnell JW Jr; Wade T; Withers K; Dilworth SJ; Bates TW; Beaver CR; Rigaud CM

Publication Title: Long-Term Monitoring at the East and West Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 1998-2001: Final Report

Subject: Marine Biodiversity
Marine Benthic Communities
Coral Reef; Monitoring; Marine Sanctuary; Biology; Habitat; Scleractinian; Hermatypic Corals; Sclerochronology

CSE Reference: Dokken QR, MacDonald IR, Tunnell JW Jr, Wade T, Withers K, Dilworth SJ, Bates TW, Beaver CR, Rigaud CM (Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX). 2003. Long-term monitoring at the East and West Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 1998–2001: final report. New Orleans (LA): US Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service. 4 p. Obligation No.: 1435-01-98-CT-30905. Report No.: OCS Study MMS 2003-031. URL: https://espis.boem.gov/Technical%20Summaries/3023.pdf

Abstract: The Flower Garden Banks coral reef system is a unique low diversity, high cover, coral reef environment located approximately 200-km (110 nmi) southeast of Galveston, Texas on the outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. Designated as a National Marine Sanctuary in 1992, the East and West Flower Garden Banks (EWFGB) represents the northernmost coral reef on the continental shelf of North America. The banks are topographic highs of bedrock displaced upward by the intrusion of two salt diapirs. The bedrock is capped with the calcium carbonate deposition of hermatypic reef-building corals and calcareous algae. The living coral reef is comprised of 20+ species of corals, and supports 250+ species of fishes and 500+ species of invertebrates. Potential threats to the long-term health of the reef include human impacts from oil and gas exploration and production, commercial shipping, destruction of organisms by recreational divers and non-point source pollution as well as natural disasters such as hurricanes. This effort is the continuation of monitoring efforts begun in 1989 and first reported in 1992. The purpose of the long-term monitoring efforts on the coral reefs of the FGB that began in 1989 (Gittings et al. 1992) is to provide relevant and timely environmental data to those charged with managing oil/gas exploration and production in the vicinity of the FGB coral reefs.