Golden Orb in Gulf of Alaska Identified as Anemone Base

Researchers from NOAA and the Smithsonian identified a ‘golden orb’ found in 2023 in the Gulf of Alaska as part of the anchoring base of a giant deep-sea anemone, Relicanthus daphneae.

The orb was collected after the Deep Discoverer remotely operated vehicle, launched from the Okeanos Explorer, spotted the object about 3,250 meters beneath the surface during a 2023 expedition.

Zoologist Allen Collins said the identification required morphological, genetic, deep-sea and bioinformatics expertise, and National Systematics Lab scientist Abigail Reft found spirocysts linking the material to cnidarians.

Whole-genome and mitochondrial sequencing matched the orb and a similar specimen collected in 2021 to Relicanthus daphneae, whose full body can span about three feet across with tentacles roughly six to seven feet long.

Scientists said the orb appears to be the anemone’s base left behind, and they do not know what happened to the animal’s upper body, suggesting it may have died or moved and underscoring deep-sea mysteries.