While scuba divers love visiting the ocean, working as an ocean science, conservation or management professional can be a hard field to break into. Having a great mentor, or even a conversation with someone who has been there before, can make a huge difference. A Washington, D.C.-based organization aims to help women learn the skills and make the connections needed to succeed in the field.

Related Reading: The Next Generation of Black Women in Marine Science

Established in 1985, the Women’s Aquatic Network has been a lifeline for ocean professionals in the D.C. area for decades. “We were started to really make sure that women were getting similar opportunities as men in our field,” Michelle Lovano, an executive board member of the Women’s Aquatic Network, tells me. “Forty years later, we still remain true to our core messaging, but now we’re open to all gender identities and affiliations. We still have the same mission to make sure that everyone has the same voice and space available to them in the aquatic world.”

The Women’s Aquatic Network is indeed now open to all, and their social events and training sessions are vibrant and well-attended. “We’ve got everything from students to nonprofits, government sector, research and academia,” Lovano says. “It’s really broad and expansive.”

Members can learn a variety of professional skills that help them land a job or a promotion in this space. “We host a variety of professional development workshops, including some that are online so that anyone anywhere can attend,” Lovano says. “One of our most popular is sessions on federal hiring and navigating the USAJOBS website used for applying to U.S. government jobs. We do evenings with leadership where they give remarks and mentorship and guidance for professionals in the field, sessions on salary negotiation, and training for stepping into leadership roles. And we do our best to have fun through it all.”

WAN members do indeed have a lot of fun at events. “We also host standard networking happy hours so that people in this space can et to know each other a little more, and maybe meet some colleagues they’ve never interacted with before,” Lovano said. “ We also do climate book clubs and tour things around DC.

Related Reading: How to Succeed As a Scuba Instructor

You can learn more about WAN and how to get involved, including in online professional development training sessions, at their website, or by following them on social media. Their LinkedIn page shares a lot of job ads.

Ask a Marine Biologist is a monthly column where Dr. David Shiffman answers your questions about the underwater world. Topics are chosen from reader-submitted queries as well as data from common internet searches. If you have a question you’d like answered in a future Ask a Marine Biologist column, or if you have a question about the answer given in this column, email Shiffman at [email protected] with subject line “Ask a marine biologist.”

Dr. David Shiffman is a marine conservation biologist specializing in the ecology and conservation of sharks. An award-winning public science educator, David has spoken to thousands of people around the world about marine biology and conservation and has bylines with the Washington Post, Scientific American, New Scientist, Gizmodo and more. Follow him on @WhySharksMatter on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where he’s always happy to answer any questions about sharks.

The views expressed in this article are those of David Shiffman, and not necessarily the views Scuba Diving magazine.