[2] She was initially intended to replace the RV Ernest Holt operating in arctic waters around Bear Island (Norway) and Iceland, but following the Cod Wars spent most of her working life conducting fisheries surveys in the North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel.

For the first part of her career RV Cirolana was based in the fishing port of Grimsby, but after bridge and channel dredging work improved the depth, it was deemed acceptable to bring her to Lowestoft.

All this damping was aimed at reducing noise/vibrations through the superstructure to enable the ability to conduct acoustic surveys of fish populations .

In the early 1970s RV Cirolana conducted extensive surveys around Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands as well as several trips to the Labrador Sea.

[2] There were ongoing issues with Cirolana's impellers being fouled by floating netting, which would then require that the ship navigate back to a safe harbour on bow thrusters alone, followed by the hire of professional divers to remove the obstruction.