Galveston, Texas, United States

East Flower Garden Bank

East Flower Garden Bank is one of three salt-dome-capped coral reefs in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, lying about 110 nautical miles south of the Texas–Louisiana border in the Gulf of Mexico. Together with West Flower Garden Bank and Stetson Bank, it represents the northernmost coral reef on the North American continental shelf. The crest of the bank rises to about 17 metres below the surface and is covered with healthy hard corals — boulder star, brain and great star — at coverage levels exceeding 50 percent, among the highest in the wider Caribbean. The site is accessible only by liveaboard from Freeport, Texas (typically Fling Charters), with crossings of about 8 hours each way. Marine life includes massive schools of horse-eye jacks, manta rays through summer, scalloped hammerhead aggregations in winter, whale sharks August to September, large loggerhead turtles, queen and grey angelfish, blue chromis and many adult goliath grouper. Visibility regularly above 25 metres.