June 18, 2026

Experience the sanctuary without getting your feet wet

Due to Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary's remote location 80-125 miles offshore, most people will never get a chance to see it in person. How do we get people interested enough to care about preserving it? We bring the sanctuary to them through exhibits.

• The Aquarium Pyramid at Moody Gardens, located in Galveston, TX, is the closest aquarium to the sanctuary offices. Since May 2017, the aquarium has welcomed a Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary exhibit as part of a larger renovation. Moody Gardens is banking healthy corals at the Coral Rescue Lab as an insurance policy against future challenges to our reefs and for continuing research into what makes some corals more resistant to coral bleaching and disease. Aquarium visitors can see these corals through the large glass windows looking into the lab and learn more about our collaboration from the video monitors alongside.

• Cameron Park Zoo, located in Waco, TX, is the only zoo that currently houses a Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary exhibit. This 50,000-gallon exhibit is part of the Brazos River Country Exhibit, which opened in July 2005. It features a journey up the Brazos River from the Gulf. Visitors to the exhibit get a chance to see the reef and part of the watershed that impacts it.

• The Tennessee Aquarium (pictured), located in Chattanooga, TN, opened a $30 million Ocean Journey building in April 2005. The centerpiece of this expansion is an immense replica of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. This three-story-tall, 618,000-gallon saltwater exhibit, the Secret Reef, gives visitors a realistic view of the huge boulder coral formations that create the reef structure at East and West Flower Garden Banks, as well as the abundant wildlife that depend on them.

• The Texas State Aquarium, located in Corpus Christi, TX, has had a Flower Gardens exhibit since it opened in 1990, before Flower Garden Banks even became a sanctuary! This 40,000-gallon exhibit showcases the coral reefs of the sanctuary and a variety of fishes. Sanctuary staff worked with the aquarium from 2009 to 2011 to update the exhibit area.

• Opened in June 2026, San Antonio Zoo's Brewer Ocean Conservation Lab is the newest exhibit to both bank healthy corals for and exhibit Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. The corals banked here were originally housed at Moody Gardens but were recently transferred to the San Antonio Zoo as a part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) program. 

We encourage you to visit the sanctuary by visiting these sanctuary-inspired zoo and aquarium exhibits!

Virtual Dive  So, you're not a diver, but you'd like to feel like one? This is the dive trip for you! If you are a diver, this is also a great way to preview the reefs at East and West Flower Garden Banks.

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