After the end of her Fish and Wildlife Service career, she served in the United States Geological Survey from 1949 to 1954, and from 1955 she operated in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

[2] On 1 July 1918, the U.S. Congress appropriated US$20,000 to the BOF for the construction or purchase of a wooden-hulled motor vessel capable of operating in the rough waters of the Bering Sea to replace its existing Pribilof tender,[3] the steamer USFS Roosevelt.

[4] The naval architecture firm of Lee and Brinton of Seattle, Washington, designed the ship, to be known as USFS Tern,[3] following the BOF's custom of naming its vessels assigned to operate in the waters of the Territory of Alaska after seabirds common in the region.

[3] Employed as a commercial deep-water Pacific halibut fishing vessel, Idaho was well known in the area and regarded as seaworthy and capable of operating in the Bering Sea during voyages to the Pribilofs.

[3] The BOF renamed her USFS Eider[3] and converted her for fisheries use by transferring most of Roosevelt′s movable equipment to her[3][4] before selling Roosevelt on 15 July 1919[4] and adding additional cabin space and a communications room.

[3] The United States Navy installed a modern 0.5-kilowatt wireless system in her communications room and a 1-pounder gun on her deck so that could provide armed protection of fur seal rookeries.

[3] Carrying several United States Government employees as passengers and a cargo of general supplies, United States Mail, and coal,[3] and with a crew of 13 – her master, first officer, second officer, engineer, assistant engineer, radio operator, and mess attendant and six seamen[3] – Eider departed Seattle on 26 October 1919 for her first voyage to the Pribilof Islands.

[3] Eider made one of her voyages to the Pribilofs in January 1920, an impressive feat in an era when few vessels attempted to operate in the Bering Sea during the hazardous winter months.

[3] For several weeks in the autumn of 1921, Eider underwent a major overhaul at Kodiak in which her hull was sheathed with ironbark, her deck railings were modified, the floor of her forecastle was raised, her rudder was reriveted, her main engine was overhauled, a new bilge pump was installed, and her cabins, companionway, bulkheads, and heads received additions and modifications and new lockers were installed.

[3] Eider transported the advance personnel, supplies, gasoline, and lubricating oil needed to support the early stages of the trip to several locations in Alaska and the Bering Sea and provided the pilots with accommodations, meals, meteorological information, and moorings for the planes.

[3] Ultimately, two of the original airplanes completed the trip successfully by arriving at Seattle on 28 September 1924, 175 days after departing Naval Air Station Sand Point.

[3] In September 1929, she lost her rudder and skeg (an extension of her keel from her stern) when she struck a rocky reef off St. George Island in the Pribilofs during a storm in fog, and she had to be towed to Juneau, Alaska, for repairs.

[3] In 1928, the BOF suggested the construction of new Pribilof tender, larger and more powerful than Eider, for voyages in the Bering Sea,[3] This ship, USFS Penguin, entered service in May 1930.

[3] In the spring of 1934, Eider began patrol work to protect fur seal herds migrating northward along the coast of Washington near Neah Bay.

In October 1946, she transported a search party to Shuyak Island n the northern part of the Kodiak Archipelago in an unsuccessful attempt to locate a missing U.S. Navy enlisted man.