On June 24, 2018, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer mapped the seafloor offshore North Carolina near the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, locating a sonar anomaly that had the potential to be a shipwreck. On June 27, the team returned to the area to determine what the "Big Dipper" anomaly actually is by conducting a visual survey using remotely operated vehicles (ROV) Deep Discoverer and Seirios.

As the ROVs approached the target, the ship and shore-based science team anticipated the opportunity to find an important part of maritime cultural history; however, instead of a shipwreck, the team found an area of broken rock slabs that was home to a diversity of organisms. Nearly every nook and cranny of habitat surveyed was home to fish and the surfaces of rocks were often covered in anemones or coral.