Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (Gulf of Mexico)

Sanctuary-wide umbrella for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the northwestern Gulf — approximately 121 square nautical miles (160.35 sq mi) of offshore reefs and banks on the Texas-Louisiana continental shelf edge, comprised of 19 separate polygons after the 2021 expansion. Spearfishing is prohibited throughout: 15 CFR 922.122(a)(8) bans taking any fish "by use of longlines, traps, nets, bottom trawls or any other gear, device, equipment or means except by use of conventional hook and line gear", and 922.122(a)(10) bans even POSSESSING any fishing gear other than conventional hook and line gear anywhere in the Sanctuary (except while passing through without interruption). "Conventional hook and line gear" is defined at 15 CFR 922.11 as a single line with sinkers and hooks or lures spooled on a reel, which a speargun is not. The 16 individually mapped banks (East and West Flower Garden, Stetson, Horseshoe, MacNeil, Rankin/28 Fathom, Bright, Geyer, Elvers, McGrail, Bouma, Sonnier, Rezak, Sidner, Parker, Alderdice) are named dive/fishing targets inside this single legal area, not separate regimes. The marker is placed on East Flower Garden Bank, inside the sanctuary boundary; the sanctuary is not a single block but 19 separate polygons spread across roughly 229 km of shelf edge, so check the NOAA sanctuary chart for the bank you intend to dive.