REGULATIONS
Following is a summary of prohibited or otherwise regulated activities within
all three areas of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary--East Flower Garden Bank, West Flower Garden Bank, and 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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Regulations Documents
Regulations, summary (260kb pdf) - a one-page summary of the regulations most likely to be applicable to individual visitors to the sanctuary (information included on this web page); not a comprehensive summary
Regulations, NMSP (364kb pdf) - excerpt from Code of Federal Regulations detailing regulations applicable to the National Marine Sanctuary Program; regulations specific to Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary are in Subpart L (2007)
Regulations, FGBNMS section (60kb pdf) - Subpart L of the above document, outlining only regulations specific to Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (2007)
Regulations, No Anchoring Amendment (44kb pdf) - excerpt from the Federal Register, detailing changes to Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary regulations to prohibit all anchoring and to limit size of vessels that can use mooring buoys (2001)
If you need additional information about sanctuary regulations, please contact us.
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