[3][4] Capable of conducting multidisciplinary oceanographic operations in support of biological, chemical, and physical process studies, Bell M. Shimada was commissioned as the fourth of a class of five of the most advanced fisheries research vessels in the world, with a unique capability to conduct both fishing and oceanographic research.

Her most advanced feature is the incorporation of United States Navy-type acoustic quieting technology to enable NOAA scientists to monitor fish populations without the ship's noise altering the behavior of the fish, including advanced quieting features incorporated into her machinery, equipment, and propeller.

Her oceanographic hydrophones are mounted on a retractable centerboard, or drop keel, that lowers scientific transducers away from the region of hull-generated flow noise, enhancing the quality of the data collected.

To take full advantage of these advanced data-gathering capabilities, she has the Scientific Sonar System, which can accurately measure the biomass of fish in a survey area.

[3][4] Bell M. Shimada has an oceanographic winch with a maximum pull weight of 6,800 pounds (3,100 kg) which can deploy up to 5,100 meters (16,700 feet) of 16-mm wire.

Her winches can deploy CTD instruments to measure the electrical conductivity, temperature, and chlorophyll fluorescence of sea water.

[1][4] When NOAA commissioned the fisheries survey vessel NOAAS Reuben Lasker (R 228) – home-ported at San Diego, California – in May 2014 and assigned her to surveys of fish, marine mammals, and sea turtles off the U.S. West Coast and in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, Bell M. Shimada was freed to focus on high-priority projects that prior to Reuben Lasker's arrival had been allocated no dedicated sea time, including studies of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem between British Columbia and Baja California and of salmon populations all along the U.S. West Coast.