SEVENSEAS Mentor Network — Code of Conduct

The SEVENSEAS Mentor Network exists to help people grow careers in ocean conservation through honest, respectful, mutually beneficial mentorship. This Code of Conduct sets the expectations for everyone who participates — mentees, mentors, and the SEVENSEAS team.

By signing up, you agree to abide by these principles. We may remove any participant who violates them.

What we expect from everyone

Respect first. Treat every participant with the dignity, patience, and good faith you’d want extended to you. The ocean conservation community is global, intergenerational, and intersectional — assume every person you interact with brings perspectives you can learn from.

Honesty in your profile. Represent your experience, role, identity, and goals truthfully. Don’t claim credentials you don’t hold. Don’t misrepresent who you are to gain access to the network.

Engage in good faith. Show up to conversations prepared, curious, and willing to give as well as receive. Mentors aren’t customer service. Mentees aren’t free labor. The relationship works best when both sides are invested.

Confidentiality. What’s shared in a mentorship conversation stays between the people in it. Don’t repeat private discussions, share screenshots, or publicize what you learn about someone else’s work, struggles, or plans without their explicit permission.

What’s not allowed

The following behaviors will result in removal from the network:

• Harassment of any kind — including sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory language or conduct
• Romantic or sexual advances — the network is for professional development, not dating. This applies in both directions: mentor to mentee and mentee to mentor.
• Solicitation — don’t use the network to pitch products, recruit for paid services, sell courses, hawk consultancy work, or run sales outreach. Mentorship is not a lead-gen channel.
• Predatory behavior toward early-career participants — including manipulation, coercion, exploitation of unpaid labor, or inappropriate gatekeeping of opportunities
• Misrepresentation — fake profiles, fabricated credentials, identity deception
• Spam or mass outreach — sending the same message to multiple mentors or mentees in bulk, or making low-effort cold outreach without context
• Doxing or sharing private information about other participants without their consent

What SEVENSEAS does and doesn’t do

We do:

• Personally review every application before approving it
• Maintain the directory and remove anyone who violates this Code of Conduct
• Investigate reports promptly and confidentially
• Update the network and improve the program based on community feedback

We don’t:

• Match mentors to mentees algorithmically — you find each other through the directory
• Supervise mentor-mentee relationships once they begin
• Mediate disputes inside ongoing relationships
• Guarantee outcomes from any specific connection
• Verify credentials beyond a quick LinkedIn check

The relationships you build through the Mentor Network are your own. We make introductions possible — what happens after that is up to the people involved.

Reporting concerns

If you experience or witness behavior that violates this Code of Conduct, please contact us immediately at info@sevenseasmedia.org. We take reports seriously and will investigate confidentially.

We may, depending on the situation:

• Issue a warning
• Temporarily suspend a profile pending investigation
• Permanently remove a participant from the network
• In serious cases, refer matters to relevant authorities

Reports are kept confidential. We will not share your identity with the person you are reporting without your consent, except where required by law or to prevent imminent harm.

Age requirement

Participation is restricted to adults aged 18 or older. We are working on building separate, age-appropriate programs for younger ocean conservation enthusiasts.

Your right to step away

You can pause or delete your profile at any time by emailing info@sevenseasmedia.org. Mentors are not obligated to accept any particular request. Mentees are not obligated to continue any particular relationship. You always have the right to say no.

Updates to this Code

We may update this Code of Conduct as the network evolves. Material changes will be communicated to all participants via email, and continued participation constitutes agreement to the updated version.

By participating in the SEVENSEAS Mentor Network, you agree to abide by this Code of Conduct in good faith.

Last updated: May 2026

For questions or concerns, reach us at info@sevenseasmedia.org.

The SEVENSEAS Mentor Network is a project of SEVENSEAS Media, a fiscally sponsored project of The Ocean Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.