Did a couple of dives around Pattaya on Saturday. The corals are really badly bleached now, even the huge Porites colonies. Some of the clams are bleached white too. Anyone know if this is 'normal' seasonal event for Pattaya or is it just a bad year? How quickly do they recover?

Most of the colonies still seem to be alive, as they are very clean, but some of them show recently patches covered in slime.

Koh Samui and Koh Tao also have severe problems, as reported over a month ago

The water temperatures are unusually hight his year which causes the bleaching. The longer it lasts, the more (permanent) damage will occur, unfortunately.

Last month Chumpon Pinnacle near Koh Tao had 31C at 40 meters.

Its the extreme warm water thats making the coral release its algae which causes it to turn white.

Only way its going to recover is if the water temp cools down

Went back to Pattaya last weekend. Corals look like they are starting to recover there, regaining their colour. Looks like anemones bleach too.

More pictures of bleaching around Koh Tao, taken last week. Apparently there's a also a slight recovery over there.

Koh Tao is horrendously bleached too. Shocking.

The bleaching problem is everywhere in Southeast Asia. Malaysia, in fact, yesterday closed a number of dive sites and said no one can dive there until the coral recovers.

I was in Koh Tao for the long weekend, and most of the shallow sites around the island were totally bleached out. On the last day I got out to some deeper areas at red rock and white rock, they were in much better condition, although still a fair bit of bleaching evident.

I don't think keeping divers out will make a shred of difference though, it just 'hides the problem'. The last site I dived in Pattaya about 70% of the coral cover was recently dead and covered with slime, it was like diving in a river full of muddy rocks. Very depressing.

Going back this weekend, hopefully to other areas that are better off!