Academic Research Fleet as a University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) designated operator.

[3] Oceanus arrived in Newport, Oregon on February 21, 2012 ahead of the March retirement of sister ship Wecoma.

Oceanus was built by Peterson Builders of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to a design by John W. Gilbert Associates, Boston, completed 1975 with a mid-life refit in 1994.

[3] The ship is 177 feet (54 m) in length with a 33-foot (10 m) beam and 17.5-foot (5.3 m) draft powered by a single EMD diesel engine of 3,000 shaft horsepower (2,200 kW) for a cruising speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) with a 7,000-nautical-mile (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) range.

[9] Oceanus was described by WHOI as "the North Atlantic workhorse of the WHOI-UNOLS fleet", used extensively in Gulf Stream and ocean circulation systems.