Scene on the Sound: NOAA survey vessel

Seen off Richmond Beach Sunday morning
Photo copyright Marc Weinberg

Marc Weinberg reports:

Homeported in Kodiak, Alaska, Oscar Dyson is the first in a class of ultra-quiet fisheries survey vessels built to collect data on fish populations, conduct marine mammal and seabird surveys, and study marine ecosystems. The ship operates primarily in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

Wikipedia has details:

Oscar Dyson was built by VT Halter Marine at Moss Point, Mississippi, and was launched on 17 October 2003, sponsored by Peggy Dyson-Malson, a ship-to-shore weather broadcaster for the National Weather Service in Kodiak, Alaska, from 1974 and 1999 and the widow of the ship's namesake, Alaskan fisherman and fishing industry leader Oscar E. Dyson.

Capable of conducting multidisciplinary oceanographic operations in support of biological, chemical, and physical process studies, Oscar Dyson was commissioned as the first of a class of five of the most advanced fisheries research vessels in the world, with a unique capability to conduct both fishing and oceanographic research. 

She is a stern trawler with fishing capabilities similar to those of commercial fishing vessels. She is rigged for longlining and trap fishing and can conduct trawling operations to depths of 1,800 meters (5,905 feet). 

Her most advanced feature is the incorporation of acoustic quieting technology to enable NOAA scientists to monitor fish populations without the ship's noise altering the behavior of the fish