Some of my best experiences on the water, or in the field have come from participating as a volunteer on scientific projects.
One early example was when I helped in the UC Berkeley Co-operative mountain lion study back in the late 1980s. The project was motivated by an 1986 mountain lion attack in Orange County. Five year old Laura Small was attacked by a mountain lion in the Ronald W. Caspars Wilderness Park.
The goal of the study was to build a census of lions in the County, tag and radio collar a sample population and track their territories. My personal goal was to collect deer carcasses that resulted from lion kills, and study the bones after subsequent scavenger ravaging. (Some of the results are featured at Stones and Bones: Faunal Taphonomy).
A more recent, and even more fun experience was to be an assistant fisherperson for Kim Anthony on her masters thesis research. I even got a mention in her thesis, Translocation, homing behavior and habitat utilization of oil platform-associated groundfishes in the east Santa Barbara Channel, California.
This was taken just before the sonic transponder tagged 91 cm Ling Cod was released in October, 2007. He traveled ~18 kilometers in three days to return from Anacapa Island to the oil well platform where he was captured. This strong homing behavior adds an extra difficulty to restocking efforts for this species.
PS: The blood on my pants is my own! Those critters have really sharp teeth, and gill rakers. We did not use a gaff on them for obvious reasons.