Northernmost US Tropical Reef Bleached By Temps, Pounded By Storm

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NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Rita's pounding waves and a hotter-than-usual Gulf of Mexico took a toll on the Gulf of Mexico's only government-protected coral reefs about 100 miles off the Louisiana and Texas coasts. Besides hardcore divers and offshore oil workers, few people see the multicolored reefs, manta rays, lobsters, sharks and fish of all stripes that dart in and out of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

But it is an important feature in the Gulf. Loggerhead sea turtles call it home, for example, and it is one of the few places in the world where hammerhead sharks school. The reefs, which began to form up to 15,000 years ago, are the northernmost coral reefs in the United States and gained sanctuary status in 1992. Roughly 2,500 divers visit them each year.

"It's one of the healthiest places where we can dive close to home," said Frank Wasson, who runs dive tours to the remote sanctuary. "When you get down there, it's boulder coral. It's very much the same in every direction, but the fish life is all around you. The fish are poking their faces over your shoulder."

Surveys of the 40-plus-square-mile sanctuary found that about 5 percent of it was damaged by Rita's waves, said G.P. Schmahl, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sanctuary manager.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/27/AR2006012700169.html