FGBNMS Posted Regulations

Regulations:
The Following is a List of Prohibited or
Otherwise Regulated Activities Within the
Flower Garden Banks National Marine
Sanctuary, Which Includes Stetson Bank
Anchoring and Mooring
The following activities are prohibited:
• Anchoring any vessel within the sanctuary
• Mooring a vessel over 100 feet in registered length
on a sanctuary mooring buoy
Discharges
Sanctuary regulations prohibit discharging or
depositing any material or other matter with a few
exceptions, including:
• Fish, fish parts, chumming materials or bait used in
or resulting from fishing with conventional hook and
line gear in the sanctuary
• Biodegradable effluents incidental to vessel use and
generated by an approved marine sanitation device
• Water generated by routine vessel operations
(e.g., cooling water, deck wash down, and graywater)
excluding oily wastes from bilge pumping
• Engine exhaust
Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles
Regulations prohibit taking any marine mammal or
turtle within the sanctuary.
Take or taking includes, but is not limited to: to harass (e.g. to
touch, ride, or shine bright lights into an animal's eyes), harm,
pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, collect or injure,
or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. This includes, but
is not limited to, the collection of any dead or injured marine
mammal, sea turtle or seabird, or any part thereof, no matter
how temporarily; to operate a vessel or aircraft or to do any
other act that results in the disturbance or molestation of any
marine mammal, sea turtle or seabird.

The Flower Garden Banks
National Marine Sanctuary,
located roughly 115 miles south
of the Texas/Louisiana coast,
harbors the northernmost coral
reefs in the continental United
States and protects Stetson
Bank and the East and West
Flower Garden Banks.
NOAA's National Ocean Service

Flower Garden Banks
National Marine Sanctuary,
including Stetson Bank
Injury to or Possession of Sanctuary Resources
The following activities are generally prohibited:
• Injuring or removing, or attempting to injure or
remove, any coral or other bottom formation, coralline
algae or other plant, marine invertebrate (e.g., spiny
lobster, queen conch, shell, sea urchin), brine-seep
biota or carbonate rock within the sanctuary.
• Possessing within the sanctuary (regardless of
where collected, caught, harvested or removed), any
carbonate rock, coral or other bottom formation,
coralline algae or other plant, or fish (except for fish
caught by use of conventional hook and line gear).
• Drilling into, dredging or otherwise altering the
seabed of the sanctuary; or constructing, placing or
abandoning any structure, material or other matter on
the seabed of the sanctuary.
Injure means to change adversely, either in the short or long
term, a chemical, biological or physical attribute of, or the
viability of. This includes, but is not limited to, to cause the
loss of or destroy.

Fishing and Related Activities
The following activities are generally prohibited:
• Injuring, catching, harvesting, collecting or feeding,
or attempting to injure, catch, harvest, collect or feed,
any fish within the sanctuary by use of any gear,
device, equipment or means (e.g. spear guns, nets)
except by use of conventional hook and line gear.
• Possessing (except while passing through the
sanctuary without interruption) any fishing gear,
device, equipment or means except conventional hook
and line gear.
• Possessing, or using explosives or releasing
electrical charges within the sanctuary.
Conventional hook and line gear means any fishing apparatus
operated aboard a vessel and composed of a single line
terminated by a combination of sinkers and hooks or lures and
spooled upon a reel that may be hand or electrically operated,
hand-held or mounted.
For full text of the regulations contact the sanctuary or see: 15 CFR,
Subpart L, 922.122(a); 15 CFR, Subpart A, 922.3

Contact Information
Flower Garden Banks
National Marine Sanctuary
4700 Avenue U, Bldg. 216
Galveston, TX 77551
(409) 621-5151 phone;
(409) 621-1316 fax
flowergarden@noaa.gov
http://flowergarden.noaa.gov
Updated 10/13/06