One of the things that makes Flower Garden great is Stetson Bank, singular in that its life flourishes on relatively bare granite rather than encrusted coral.
DIVING FLOWER GARDEN BANKS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY, is a spectacular experience, one of the U.S.’s under-appreciated gems. A pair of totally underwater salt domes in the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles off the Texas/Louisiana coast, would seem an unlikely place to find a rich coral reef.
But as a two-day liveaboard boat dive, it’s a relatively accessible dive destination for those of us in Texas with a pressing need to get underwater in an ocean. The trip offers seven dives on reefs that top out at depths of about 60 to 70 feet.
While a lot of coral reefs developed on the ruins of extinct volcanoes, Flower Gardens is built up atop salt domes pushed up from the sea floor. In terms of lushness or diversity it’s not the Caribbean – well, it is styled as “The Texas Caribbean.”
Flower Garden has excellent coral and marine life ranging from parrotfishes to Christmas tree worms, with the possibility of whale sharks and manta rays passing by. One of the highlights of my dive career was my 20-minute dance with a lady manta on my last visit there.
DIVING FLOWER GARDEN BANKS MEANS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DIVE:
• The West Bank, a beautiful coral-laden reef hosting a nice diversity of fishes and invertebrates.
Approaching Platform 374.
• An oil or gas platform, always one of the best parts of going to Flower Garden. They are fantastic artificial reefs with zillions of fishes, sponges, algae, silky sharks, some corals settling in around their complex structure of piling and crossbeams.
• The East Bank, another terrific coral reef.
• Stetson Bank, where the water temperatures are cool enough to keep coral from forming in normal tropical reef populations but not cool enough to prevent the parrotfishes, shrimps, oysters and other varieties of marine life from settling.
A sea urchin, a rare reef scorpionfish and a pair of banded coral shrimps are easily spotted on the bare rock of Stetson Bank.
The result at Stetson is a landscape often compared to the surface of the moon (I thought about it as resembling some of the rock formations I’ve seen at Cape Ann, in Mass.). Actually, without the visual chaos of corals and dense algae, lots of life was visible. A great diving experience!
A FLOWER GARDEN GALLERY
The M/V Fling in Freeport, TX.
The dive briefing map.
Rich with corals.
And lots of Christmas tree worms.
Above water, the platform looked imposing.
Underwater, it was a mass of pilings, struts and beams.
Urchins and arrow crabs seem to go together. Everywhere.
Lizardfish (S. intermedius),
Juvenile Angelfish – French or Gray
Angel eyes.
Southern stingray.
This queen angel invaded the banded coral shrimp’s crevice for something to eat.
This tooth about parrotfishes, does, in fact, center on the tooth..
Fish conference.
Spotted an eel.
And then another one.
Yeah, there are lionfishes.
Sponge community.
Approaching Platform 374.
Underwater, it’s crazy.
But a terrific habitat for life.
And divers.
Barracuda at 12 o’clock high!
Sergeantmajor community.
Sponge on a piling.
Corals on a piling.
There’s a fine line between trash and environment.
Stetson Banks is a fantastic “reef” of rock and only occasional coral growth.
But it attrracts life, including a lot of juveniles.
Or maybe it’s just that things show up better without the kind of algae that fits in with coral formations. This is a red-spotted hawkfish, the first I’ve ever seen.
The little fish, about three inches long, is a rarely seen reef scorpionfish.
My dive buddy Jason shoots an octopus.
Different view, same octopus.
Ditto.
(Texas) Caribbean lobster.
There are at least five arrow crabs in this photo.
Spanish Hogfish, (Bodianus rufus), Flower Gardens
Spotted Scorpionfish (Scorpaena plumieri), Belize
Scrawled cowfish.
Mottled Sea star on Stetson Bank at 70 feet.
In other places i’m used to calling the thick urchins lead pencil urchins. What’s fun here is realizing there’s a sea star hiding out with the urchins.
