East Flower Garden Bank (Flower Garden Banks NMS)

A salt-dome-capped coral bank about 100 miles off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico, part of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and home to some of the healthiest coral reef in the western Atlantic region. The reef cap sits at roughly 55-90 ft with massive boulder star and brain coral heads, and is reached by overnight liveaboard charters out of Freeport/Galveston using sanctuary mooring buoys. Famous for mass coral spawning about a week after the August full moon and seasonal manta and whale shark encounters.