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Managing Marine Areas: Success Stories Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Managing Marine Areas: Success Stories Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. G. P. Schmahl Sanctuary Manager June 12, 2003. Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Stetson Bank. East Flower Garden Bank. West Flower Garden Bank. Flower Garden Banks

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Managing Marine Areas: Success Stories Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

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  1. Managing Marine Areas: Success StoriesFlower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary G. P. Schmahl Sanctuary Manager June 12, 2003

  2. Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Stetson Bank East Flower Garden Bank West Flower Garden Bank

  3. Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary East Flower Garden Bank West Flower Garden Bank Multibeam Bathymetry USGS, 1997

  4. Perched atop salt domes • Northernmost coral reefs in the continental United States • Reef foundation formed by large, stony corals (e.g. brain and star corals) • About 23 coral species • Over 850 other reef invertebrate species • ~250 fish species • 125+ algae species

  5. Percent Living Coral Cover - Major Reefs Flower Garden Banks 50.5% Cayman Islands 21.0% Cuba 15 - 23% Bonaire 48% Akumal, Mexico 16.8% Netherlands Antilles 10 - 47% St. Vincent Grenadines 29 - 44% Turks and Caicos up to 30% Florida Keys 3 - 22% As determined by the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRAA)

  6. Seasonal aggregations of sharks and rays

  7. Tracking Loggerhead Sea Turtles Using Satellite Telemetry Frank and Joyce Burek Quenton Dokken

  8. Oil and Gas Infrastructure Flower Garden Banks

  9. Oil and Gas Infrastructure

  10. High Island A-389 Platform - East Flower Garden Bank

  11. Potential Impacts from Oil and Gas Activities • Anchoring • Seismic surveys • Effluent discharge • Oil spills • Blowouts • Structure emplacement • Structure removal

  12. Ixtoc I 1979 Burmah Agate 1979 Mega Borg 1990 Major Gulf of Mexico Oil Spills

  13. Flower Garden Banks Regulatory Zones and Oil and Gas Infrastructure

  14. Protective Measures • Discharge of all drilling effluents through a downpipe within 10 meters of the seafloor • Oil spill planning, notification and mitigation measures • Pipeline operation and “shut in” guidelines • Sanctuary review of all development plans within the 4-mile zone

  15. Long-term monitoring studies of the coral reef areas since the mid 1970’s indicate no significant detrimental impacts related to oil and gas activities

  16. Automated TABS Data Buoy Flower Garden Joint Industry Project Photography by Frank Burek

  17. TABS Buoy Http://www.gerg.tamu.edu/ngli/V/

  18. Down Under, Out Yonder Offers classroom theory, accompanied with hands-on activities….. …...followed by an intense field experience in the Flower Garden Banks NMS.

  19. Major Challenges • Restore natural populations of fish and other marine organisms • Protect from water quality degradation • Understand linkages between the network of biological features in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico

  20. Essential Fish Habitat 250ft. NURC ROV Photography by Frank and Joyce Burek 230ft. 170ft. NURC ROV NURC ROV

  21. Spawning Marbled Grouper May 3, 2003

  22. 2,302 miles long • 1.2 million square miles • 40% of continental U.S. • 12 million people • 612,000 cubic feet per second

  23. Chlorophyll Flower Garden Banks

  24. Multi - parameter Water Quality Instruments YSI Datasonde 6600 - September 2001 • Temperature • Salinity • Depth • pH • Turbidity • Dissolved oxygen • Light (PAR)

  25. Reefs and Banks of the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

  26. Sustainable Seas Expedition 2002

  27. Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo A “Garden in the Gulf”

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