Increasing documentation of coral-competing sponges have been made across the Indo-Pacific in recent years, utilising a variety of in-situ survey methods to quantify and classify the competitive capacity of these sponges. Estimating the abundance and comparative abundances of sponges in marine environments is made challenging due to the number of variables that can be assessed and the cost/benefit analysis of differing survey methods that may be used. Regular monitoring surveys at two adjacent submerged pinnacle sites in the Gulf of Thailand revealed colonisation and rapid proliferation of a previously undocumented coral-competing sponge at one pinnacle but not the other. To investigate the influence of survey methodology on the abundance and substrate specificity of the sponge, tentatively identified as Haliclona sp., we conducted point-intercept (PIT) and quadrat surveys along transect lines, alongside roving diver assessments. Qualitative assessments unsurprisingly found roving-diver surveys as documenting the greatest diversity of Anthozoa colonised by the sponge, with quadrat surveys generally classifying a similar or greater diversity colonised than PIT surveys. Quantitative analyses however revealed that, despite broadly similar substrate compositions, PIT surveys tended to find higher substrate coverage of certain biotic substrates than quadrat surveys. We discuss the merits and flaws of different survey methodologies, and possible applications of each, in the context of our findings.