Gulf Coast of the United States Gulf Coast of the United States The Gulf Coast of the United States is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and these are known as the "Gulf States". The economy of the Gulf Coast area is dominated by industries related to energy, petrochemicals, fishing, aerospace, agriculture, and tourism. The large cities of the region are (from west to east) McAllen, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile,
Gulf of Mexico is warmer than the surrounding water (65 degrees compared to 39), wildlife have been attracted to it and could not survive. Today, the Gulf of Mexico has the following 7 main areas: Although Christopher Columbus was credited with the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, the ships in his four voyages never reached the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, Columbus sailed into the Caribbean around Cuba and Hispaniola. The first European exploration of the Gulf of Mexico was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497. He followed the coastal land mass of Central America before returning to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits