Best places to dive with Soft coral

Soft coral and large barrel sponges cover the Atauro wall dives at Adara, Bikeli and Kitali Bay. Conservation International rated the reefs healthy overall in its assessment, with the caveat that some areas had been damaged by blast fishing.

Soft corals are a defining feature of exposed Bangka pinnacles; current and polyp extension change their appearance from dive to dive.

Soft coral growth on the superstructures is what makes these hulls worth photographing — the Cement Wreck in particular is described as heavily encrusted. Cover is on the steel, not on a surrounding reef.

Con Dao's reefs mix hard coral gardens with soft coral, and 2022–2023 benthic surveys recorded 41 coral genera here, the highest documented in Vietnam. Set expectations against the 2024 bleaching event, which hit about 97% of coral cover at 2–5m — condition on any given dive may be much poorer than pre-2024 descriptions suggest.

Soft and hard corals have colonised the shallower wrecks and the shallower structure of the deeper ones, densest on the Okikawa Maru and Olympia Maru. Present year-round; growth is a wreck-encrusting community rather than a reef.

Soft and hard corals cover the fringing reefs around San Miguel Island and Bobby's Wall, with soft coral standing out against the white sand.

Soft corals cover the boulder reefs and pinnacles and encrust the HTMS Chang; the dominant reef-building character here rather than extensive hard-coral gardens.

Pink and purple soft-coral gardens define Stonehenge, Jabang, Seven Rocks and Koh Sarang.

The signature marine feature of the shallow wrecks; best developed on the well-lit upper structures.

Soft corals cover shaded overhangs and channel walls at Fotteyo, Miyaru and Golden Wall. Condition varies after the 2024 national bleaching event, and site-specific recovery data are limited.

Soft coral has held up better than the hard coral that collapsed at Hon Mun, and is densest on the offshore pinnacles at Electric Nose and Light House. Inshore sites are patchy — Nha Trang Bay hard coral cover fell to 11–33% by 2022 depending on the sector.