Thomas Edward Pulley

In 1960, Thomas Pulley, the director of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, organized the first scientific expedition to the Flower Garden Banks, lying submerged more than 50 feet under the Gulf, 100 miles southeast of Galveston. His team verified that the reef was made of robust living coral. His team’s explorations built on earlier reports, including 1890s accounts from snapper and grouper fishermen, a 1936 hydrographic study by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and a 1953 corals report from the Woods Hole geological oceanographer, Henry Stetson. This series of efforts led to the establishment of the Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary in 1992.