In 1940, the Bureau of Fisheries was abolished when its personnel and facilities became part of the newly created Fish and Wildlife Service, under the United States Department of the Interior.

[4] With a budget of US$5,000, it began operations in 1871, organized to engage in scientific, statistical, and economic investigations of U.S. fisheries to study the "decrease of the food fishes of the seacoasts and to suggest remedial measures.

[4][7] Bowers led the Bureau of Fisheries, followed by Hugh McCormick Smith, Henry O'Malley, and finally Frank T. Bell.

The two agencies also scrutinized fishing technologies and designed, built, and operated hatcheries for a wide variety of finfish and shellfish.

Both the Fish Commission and the Bureau of Fisheries operated a fleet of ships and boats for research, law enforcement, and transportation purposes.

[24] The U.S. Government did not operate another fisheries research vessel until the Fish and Wildlife Service commissioned US FWS Albatross III in 1948.

[27] Purpose-built as a floating fish hatchery, she was intended to follow the seasonal runs of American shad up and down the coast of the United States, in addition to carrying out fisheries research duties.

[4] Upon receiving its law enforcement responsibilities in 1905–1906, the Bureau established regional districts throughout Alaska to organize fishery protection patrols along Alaska's 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of coastline, but had no vessels suitable for such patrols in Alaska, and during the next few years relied on vessels borrowed from other United States Government agencies (such as the Revenue Cutter Service), on chartered vessels, and on transportation that canneries offered for free to Bureau of Fisheries agents.

[28][29] This approach was not satisfactory for various reasons, such as the requirement for vessels of other government agencies to perform non-fishery-related functions, ethical concerns over accepting transportation from the canneries the Bureau of Fisheries agents were supposed to regulate, and the difficulty of enforcing regulations when the local fishing and canning industry personnel warned one another of the approach of Bureau of Fisheries agents who had accepted transportation on cannery vessels.

[28] In 1912, the Bureau purchased the former cannery tender SS Wigwam to serve as its first fishery patrol vessel; renamed USFS Osprey[28][30]—beginning a custom of naming the boats after birds common in Alaska[28]—she was commissioned in 1913[30] and quickly added the protection of fur seal and sea otter populations to her responsibilities.

[35] In addition to stream watchmen, the Bureau also employed special wardens and operators of chartered boats to enforce fishery regulations.

[36] The patrols focused on Southeast Alaska,[36] and by 1939 logged an annual total of 6,859 miles (11,038 km) in 64 hours of flying.

[29] The Fish and Wildlife Service transferred many of its patrol boats to the State of Alaska and refocused its resources on its scientific mission.

[28] In 1906, the Bureau of Fisheries became responsible for the enforcement of a law intended to regulate the taking of sponges in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of Florida.

[4] On April 21, 1910, the United States Congress assigned the responsibility for the management and harvest of northern fur seals, foxes, and other fur-bearing animals in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea,[4][38] as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the Aleut communities in the islands, to the Bureau of Fisheries.

[38] Under the protection and management first of the Bureau of Fisheries and later of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Pribilof fur seal herd grew from 150,000 animals in 1911 to 1,500,000 in 1960.

[37] To support the local Aleut community, the Bureau initially chartered commercial vessels to transport passengers and cargo to, from, and between the Pribilofs,[38] but by 1915 it had decided that a more cost-effective means of serving the islands would be to own and operate its own "Pribilof tender,"[38] a dedicated cargo liner responsible for transportation to, from, and between the islands.

Its ships were given the prefix "USFS" while in commission, derived from an alternative name, "United States Fisheries Service," sometimes used for the Bureau.

Although there were occasional exceptions (such as Grampus, Red Wing, and Roosevelt), the Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries custom was to name vessels after aquatic birds.