Mystery Solved: Gulf of Alaska's "Golden Orb" Identified as Relic of Deep-Sea Anemone

April 22, 2026

Today NOAA has issued a press release announcing the identification of the Gulf of Alaska's infamous "Golden Orb" — the enigmatic biological structure that captivated scientists and the public alike when NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer found it during the 2023 Seascape Alaska 5 expedition.

The mysterious golden mass, discovered at a depth of 3,250 meters (over 2 miles) in the Gulf of Alaska, has been identified as a remnant of dead cells, or cuticle, that formed at the base of a giant deep-sea anemone, Relicanthus daphneae — specifically, the portion of the animal that had attached to the rock substrate.

The identification is described in a new preprint publication by myself and colleagues at the National Museum of Natural History, Fisheries and Ocean Canada, The Ohio State University, and American Museum of Natural History. The study drew on imagery and physical specimens collected across multiple ocean basins and ocean exploration platforms to build the case. Whole-genome sequencing and mitochondrial genome comparisons were key to the resolution: sequencing confirmed that the specimen's mitochondrial genome was genetically nearly identical to a known Relicanthus daphneae reference genome.

Although the Golden Orb represented a strikingly rare find, R. daphneae is a cosmopolitan species with a broad distribution throughout the deep ocean. What makes the orb unusual is what it is — not the shed animal itself, but the remnant basal cuticle left behind after the anemone died or relocated.

It was a pleasure to be part of the outstanding team of zoologists who cracked this curious case. The work underscores a broader lesson for deep-sea science: voucher specimen collections are indispensable to interpreting what we find on the seafloor. Without the physical specimen recovered by ROV Deep Discoverer, this identification would not have been possible.

Preprint citation: Auscavitch, S. R., Reft, A., Collens, A. B., Mah, C., Best, M., Benedict, C., Rodríguez, E., Daly, M., & Collins, A. G. (2026). The curious case of the golden orb – relict of Relicanthus daphneae (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Hexacorallia), a deep sea anemone [Preprint]. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.17.719276