[1] After Astoria Marine Construction completed the boats, the PEC leased them from the RFC for US$50,000 per year and 55% percent of whatever profit they made, and took operational control of them.

[1] On 8 December 1949, Oregon departed Seattle for a 27-day voyage to her new home port at the FWS's new Exploratory Fishing and Gear Research (EF&GR) base at Pascagoula, Mississippi, where she arrived on 5 January 1950.

[1] She then began a 16-year stint in which she supported EF&GR by exploring the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the western Atlantic Ocean as far south as the coast of French Guiana for commercially useful populations of marine life, including bottomfish.

[1] Her first cruise from Pascagoula began in April 1950, when she set out in search of commercially exploitable populations of shrimp, red snapper, tuna, menhaden, and shark, based on a recommendation by the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission.

In 1964, she took part in the International Cooperative Investigations of the Tropical Atlantic (ICITA) program by collecting hydrographic and biological data and studying surface-schooling fish off South America.

[1] Using longlining, trolling, trawling, and dredging techniques, she caught tuna, swordfish, several species of shark, dwarf herring, silverside, shrimp, scarlet prawns, and lobsterettes, providing the United Nations personnel on board with knowledge of the fishery resources off the Lesser Antilles and experience in the use of fishing gear and techniques that would help in the future exploitation of fisheries in the Caribbean.

[1] With it complete, she moved to her new base at the EF&GR laboratory at Juneau, Alaska, replacing the BCF vessel US FWS John R. Manning.

From Juneau, she conducted cruises to test new fishing gear designs and explore the eastern Bering Sea and lower Bristol Bay for commercially useful bottomfish, shrimp, and crab populations.

[1] On 3 October 1970, a major reorganization occurred which formed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the United States Department of Commerce.