Gyre was purchased by TDI-Brooks International, Inc., flagged in Vanuatu, Port Vila and operated as a for hire research and survey vessel with particular suitability for undersea oil and gas related work.

With a capacity of 89,000 US gallons (340,000 L) of diesel oil the ship had a range of 8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at cruising speed and endurance of sixty days limited by food.

[2] Gyre was leased to the Texas A&M University School of Oceanography as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet of Navy owned ships, based in Galveston operating with call sign KJCL.

The university acquired the vessel by transfer from the Navy and continued to operate Gyre as part of the UNOLS fleet with National Science Foundation (NSF) support for research.

[5] The MMS used Gyre as the research platform for The Deep Gulf of Mexico Benthos (DGoMB) project studying impact of oil and gas operations on the sea floor biota.

[8] Gyre is currently operated by TDI-Brooks International, Inc., College Station, Texas, flagged in Vanuatu, Port Vila advertised for work out of Mexico, Northern South America and West Africa.