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Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is a United States National Marine Sanctuary located offshore of Galveston, Texas, in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. It contains the northernmost coral reefs in the United States. Underlying salt domes forced the seafloor upward in various areas of the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the formation of seamounts and ocean banks. Conditions of the Gulf of Mexico were conducive to reef-building, which started roughly ten to fifteen thousand years ago. Two reefs, East Flower Garden Bank (EFGB) and West Flower Garden Bank (WFGB), made up Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) when it was initially created in 1992. In 1996, Stetson Bank was added to the sanctuary. The three banks are not contiguous. The sanctuary contains many aquatic species. Almost three hundred species of fish and over twenty species of coral are found in the sanctuary along with a wide variety of crustaceans, sea sponge, sponges, and plants. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf Of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo; and on the southeast by Cuba. The Southern United States, Southern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which border the Gulf on the north, are often referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, Pacific coasts). The Gulf of Mexico took shape approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics.Huerta, A.D., and D.L. Harry (2012) ''Wilson cycles, tectonic inheritance, and rifting of the North American Gulf of Mexico continental margin.'' Geosphere. 8(1):GES00725.1, first p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. Each polyp excretes an exoskeleton near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a skeleton characteristic of the species which can measure up to several meters in size. Individual colonies grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously overnight, often around a full moon. Fertilized eggs form planulae, a mobile early form of the coral polyp which, when m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astreopora
''Astreopora'' is a genus of stony corals in the Acroporidae family. Members of the genus are commonly known as star corals and there are seventeen species currently recognized. Description Members of this genus mostly form dome-shaped or rounded heads but sometimes have leaflike extensions, be encrusting or form plates, vases and branches. They are much larger than members of the genus ''Montipora''. They have a wide range of colours including yellow, brown, green, pink and blue but the most common are whitish-blue. The corallites are distinct and separate, sometimes raised on cones and sometimes depressed, up to four millimetres across and round in cross-section. The skeleton is porous with the coenosteum having a net-like appearance. The coral appears rough-textured because of tiny spines that cover the surface between the corallites. The septa are poorly developed giving corals of this genus the appearance of being filled with holes. Distribution Members of this genus occur i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has extensive mangrove forest and seagrass fields. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 1990, is the ninth national marine sanctuary to be established in a system that comprises 13 sanctuaries and two marine national monuments. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary protects approximately of coastal and ocean waters from the estuarine waters of south Florida along the Florida Keys archipelago, encompassing more than 1,700 islands, out to the Dry Tortugas National Park, reaching into the Atlantic Ocean, Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The mission of the sanctuary is to protect the marine resources of the Florida Keys while facilitating human uses that are consistent with the primary objective of resource protection. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea. Its capital and largest city is Tegucigalpa. Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, before the Spanish Colonization in the sixteenth century. The Spanish introduced Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bay Islands Department
The Bay Islands ( es, Islas de la Bahía; ) is a group of islands off the coast of Honduras. Collectively, the islands form one of the 18 departments of Honduras. The departmental capital is Coxen Hole, on the island of Roatán. Geography The Bay Islands consist of eight islands and 53 small cays lying to off the northern coast of Honduras. These islands have been administered as a department of the Republic of Honduras since 1872.Central American English Central American English, By John A. Holm, Geneviève Escure, Elissa Warantz. Central American English Volume I, 1983. Retrieved March 2, 2013. Located on the Caribbea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smooth Trunkfish
''Lactophrys triqueter'' also known as the smooth trunkfish, is a species of boxfish found on and near reefs in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and subtropical parts of the western Atlantic Ocean.Matsuura, K. (2014): Taxonomy and systematics of tetraodontiform fishes: a review focusing primarily on progress in the period from 1980 to 2014. ''Ichthyological Research'', 62 (1): 72–113. Taxonomy The names ''Lactophrys triqueter'' and ''Rhinesomus triqueter'' are synonymous. The former is accepted by the Encyclopedia of Life but the World Register of Marine Species and FishBase recognize ''Rhinesomus triqueter'' as the valid name. ''R. triqueter'' is a species of ''Lactophrys''. Description The smooth trunkfish has an angular body sheathed in plate-like scales, growing to a maximum length of , though is a more normal size. The Smooth Trunkfish is the most difficult fish to catch in the Atlantic Ocean. The body is enclosed in a bony carapace and, when viewed from the front, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean) and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region has more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays (see the list of Caribbean islands). Island arcs delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea: The Greater Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago on the north and the Lesser Antilles and the on the south and east (which includes the Leeward Antilles). They form the West Indies with the nearby Lucayan Archipelago (the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands), which are considered to be part of the Caribbean despite not bordering the Caribbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanctuary
A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a safe place for people, such as a political sanctuary; and non-human sanctuary, such as an animal or plant sanctuary. Religious sanctuary ''Sanctuary'' is a word derived from the Latin , which is, like most words ending in , a container for keeping something in—in this case holy things or perhaps cherished people (/). The meaning was extended to places of holiness or safety, in particular the whole demarcated area, often many acres, surrounding a Greek or Roman temple; the original terms for these are ''temenos'' in Greek and ''fanum'' in Latin, but both may be translated as "sanctuary". Similar usage may be sometimes found describing sacred areas in other religions. In Christian churches ''sanctuary'' has a specific meaning, covering p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charts the seas, conducts deep sea exploration, and manages fishing and protection of marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone. Purpose and function NOAA's specific roles include: * ''Supplying Environmental Information Products''. NOAA supplies to its customers and partners information pertaining to the state of the oceans and the atmosphere, such as weather warnings and forecasts via the National Weather Service. NOAA's information services extend as well to climate, ecosystems, and commerce. * ''Providing Environmental Stewardship Services''. NOAA is a steward of U.S. coastal and marine environments. In coordination with federal, state, local, tribal and international authorities, NOAA manages the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George H
George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States * George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States * George V, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1910-1936 * George VI, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1936-1952 * Prince George of Wales * George Papagheorghe also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George Harrison, an English musician and singer-songwriter Places South Africa * George, Western Cape ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa * George, Missouri * George, Washington * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Characters * George (Peppa Pig), a 2-year-old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marine Protection, Research, And Sanctuaries Act Of 1972
Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (MPRSA) or Ocean Dumping Act is one of several key environmental laws passed by the US Congress in 1972. The Act has two essential aims: to regulate intentional ocean disposal of materials, and to authorize any related research.Claudia Copeland. Cong. Bill. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 1999. While the MPRSA regulates the ocean dumping of waste and provides for a research program on ocean dumping, it also provides for the designation and regulation of marine sanctuaries.The Office of Health, Safety and Security - Home. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. The act regulates the ocean dumping of all material beyond the territorial limit ( from shore) and prevents or strictly limits dumping material that "would adversely affect human health, welfare, or amenities, or the marine environment, ecological systems, or economic potentialities". The MPRSA authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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