flower gardens
This beautiful 40,000-gallon exhibit provides a window into an actual coral reef located more than 200 miles east, the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
Named for the colorful Caribbean species that call it home, Flower Gardens is essentially an underwater national park, providing a federally-protected habitat for angelfish, groupers, porcupinefish, and countless other marine species. This oasis of life in the Gulf of Mexico was originally formed millions of years ago when a salt deposit in the ocean floor was pushed up, creating a salt dome that extended closer to the ocean surface. This newly-formed habitat soaked up newly available sunlight, creating an environment where reef coral and other aquatic species thrived.
In our Flower Gardens exhibit, you can see many of the marine sanctuary’s native species coexisting among the vibrant coral environment. The real-life Flower Gardens is a mecca for scuba divers, and you can see our own scuba diver feeding our Flower Gardens fish during the daily Diver in the Water presentations (held September through April.)
In this exhibit, learn how the Flower Gardens sanctuary received federal protection because of harmful human activities like anchoring and mooring, boat discharges, fishing, and contact with marine mammals and turtles, and discover the threats that Flower Gardens and other reefs still face to this day.