NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson was launched at VT Halter Marine, in Pascagoula, Mississippi on October 17, 2003, and was commissioned May 28, 2005 in Kodiak, Alaska. Oscar Dyson is the first of four new fisheries survey ships to be built by NOAA. Christened Oscar Dyson by Mrs. Peggy Dyson-Malson, wife of the late Alaskan fisherman and fisheries industry leader, Oscar Dyson, the ship is one of the most technologically advanced fisheries survey vessels in the world. The ship is homeported in Mr. Dyson's home town of Kodiak, Alaska.

Oscar Dyson supports NOAA's mission to protect, restore and manage the use of living marine, coastal, and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management. Its primary objective is to study and monitor Alaskan pollock and other fisheries in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The ship also observes weather, sea state, and other environmental conditions, conducts habitat assessments, and surveys marine mammal and marine bird populations.