Flower garden banks national marine sanctuary (fgbnms) supports a unique and thriving coral reef ecosystem and serves as a safe haven for wild coral communities in the gulf of america (GOA),…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation a $433,201 cooperative agreement on March 1, 2026, under the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Science, Observation, Monitoring, and Technology Program (CFDA 11.451) to conduct long-term research, monitoring, and observation supporting coral reef ecosystem sustainability at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of America through February 28, 2031.

The award funds coral reef research and monitoring activities targeting scleractinian coral communities at Flower Garden Banks, which represent some of the healthiest tropical Western Atlantic coral reefs but are experiencing increased bleaching frequency, localized mortality events, and disease outbreaks. Work is performed at Silver Spring, Maryland with place of performance including Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of America.

The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is passing funds to four sub-recipients delivering specialized research and monitoring components. The University of Alabama at Birmingham conducts long-term assessment of coral physiology, energy reserves, and feeding ecology, coordinates with the sanctuary for coral colony selection and bi-annual collections, and mentors graduate students on sample processing and data analysis. The University of Miami provides environmental monitoring and reef persistence evaluation, leveraging existing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program research infrastructure, operations, and datasets to assess coral physiology and genotype performance using technical diving capabilities. The University of Texas at Austin performs dissolved oxygen monitoring validation through Winkler titration methods, accompanying sanctuary water quality cruises and publishing findings in an open-access journal. The Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara executes the 2026–2027 marine debris removal project across Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary, conducting in-water and shore-based cleanups to remove abandoned fishing gear and debris.

This is a five-year cooperative agreement funded through the RESTORE Act settlement framework supporting co-produced science for natural resource management in the Gulf of America.

Flower garden banks national marine sanctuary (fgbnms) supports a unique and thriving coral reef ecosystem and serves as a safe haven for wild coral communities in the gulf of america (GOA), formerly known as the gulf of mexico. The scleractinian coral communities in fgbnms have been recognized as some of the healthiest in the tropical western atlantic and are the targeted natural resources of this study. Even though these reefs have demonstrated remarkable resilience to environmental threats to date, they are experiencing increased bleaching frequency, localized mortality events, and disease outbreaks, with models suggesting that the shallow coral reefs (