The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) announced today that it has funded the first of several marine conservation and education projects designed to protect the fragile coral reefs and communities of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). This effort began this summer with the installation of permanent moorings in key areas of the sanctuary located 100 miles off the coast of Galveston, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The FGBNMS is a no anchor zone, as designated through federal regulations, as well as through the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This should afford protection from anchoring. However, another important way to protect reefs and communities in the FGBNMS is to install and maintain moorings that allow boats less than 100 feet long, to tie up and access the sanctuary, further protecting the fragile habitat from the potential impacts of anchoring.

"Anchoring can cause tremendous damage to coral reef and marine habitats not only from the direct impact of the anchor, but also from dragging hundreds of feet of heavy chains along the ocean bottom," said G.P. Schmahl, sanctuary superintendent. "Moorings will allow access to the site by smaller vessels conducting allowed activities."

Under sanctuary staff supervision, moorings were installed in late July by Spree Expeditions, LLC, which was contracted by the FGBNMS to install new U-bolt anchors for the attachment of mooring buoys at Stetson Bank, and East and West Flower Garden Banks.

The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is the private, non-profit partner to the federal National Marine Sanctuary System, managed within NOAA's National Ocean Service. The 14 sites within the system protect special places in the oceans and Great Lakes, from the Florida Keys to the Hawaiian Islands, and from Lake Huron to the Gulf of Mexico.