This book describes the plants and animals occupying the West Flower Garden Bank. The crests of the West and East Flower Garden Banks are submerged, thriving, tropical Atlantic coral reefs. They are located on the outer continental shelf of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico offshore from Texas/Louisiana . Only the reefs of Bermuda are farther north in the Atlantic Ocean.

Black-and-white pictures of many specimens of the organisms are accompanied by taxonomic descriptions. This was the first comprehensive account of the Flower Garden reef biota, listing hundreds of invertebrate and vertebrate species. It represents the work of the authors and their graduate students at the Texas A&M University Department of Oceanography in the early 1970s.

The Flower Gardens and nearby Stetson Bank now comprise the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, administered by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).