Defender,

One of our nation’s undersea jewels is under attack and we need your help.

To accommodate members of the oil and gas industry, the Trump Administration is abandoning its original plans for an urgently needed expansion of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to stick with their original expansion plan and keep the Sanctuary safe from destructive fishing and more oil exploration.

The Administration’s new proposal for expansion, which shrinks the size of the original proposal by more than 50%, is primarily based on boundaries drawn by an oil and gas industry member. The Administration is even considering opening the entire sanctuary to destructive longline fishing and spear fishing, which can incidentally kill threatened and endangered species.

Juvenile manta rays, sea turtles and more are in danger.

Please raise your voice to protect the marine wildlife who call this sanctuary home!

Flower Garden Banks Sanctuary is one of the only protected areas in the entire Gulf of Mexico. This Sanctuary and the proposed expansion areas are home to the Gulf’s largest densities of deep-water coral, host nursery habitat for threatened juvenile giant manta rays, and are visited by protected species like loggerhead and endangered hawksbill sea turtles.

But NOAA’s new boundaries would abandon the potential protection of more than 200 square miles and leave sensitive habitats between banks exposed to bycatch from fishing lines, spearfishing and oil and gas exploration.

Don’t let NOAA turn its back on marine wildlife. Raise your voice for manta rays, sea turtles and more by adding your signature right now!

We must hold NOAA accountable right now and demand that they fulfill their duty to protect this rare aquatic habitat and its marine wildlife