The vessel carries out research into and collects data on the maritime environment and serves as a trial platform for nautical plant and equipment. It has sailed well over one million kilometres since going into service in 1980. Although its main operational areas are the North Sea and the Baltic, the vessel has also crossed the Atlantic five times during involvement in international maritime programmes.

In 1986 Gauss hit the headlines when it sailed into the radioactive fallout area of the Chernobyl reactor disaster and took the first samples of contaminated water.

The BSH said its latest mission was to carry out chemical and oceanographic tests into the ecological status of the North Sea between the German Bight and the Shetlands. It towed a dolphin measurement device at 10 knots and collected data on sea temperatures, saline, oxygen and chlorophyll content.

Also in the BSH fleet along with the Gauss were the survey ships Komet and Capella , of 64.2m and 43.2m length and the survey, wreck seeking and research ships Atair , which is 51.4m long, Wega and Deneb , which are both 52.05m. The youngest and at the same time smallest vessel in the fleet, the 43.2m long Capella , entered service just last year.

Between them, the six BSH vessels last year sailed 107,000km in the North and Baltic Seas.