Catchable, Terms of Service & Privacy

Last updated: October 2, 2026 · Operated by 33knots

Terms, the essentials

• What it is: a convenience tool for quickly referring to public DFO / Province of BC fishing regulations visually, and then confirming them on the official government sites it links to. It may be incomplete, out of date, or wrong. It is not legal advice and not the official regulations.
• Verify before you fish: any status, limit, season, or closure shown is a starting point for your own verification against the official DFO Fishery Notices, the DFO Pacific recreational fishing pages, and the BC Freshwater Synopsis, never a determination you may rely on.
• No commercial use, no reselling our data: you may not use the App or its data for any commercial purpose, and you may not resell, redistribute, republish, or charge anyone for access to the App or its data, or build it into any other product, service, or dataset. Reading the App yourself as a personal reference is fine, even if you fish for a living.
• Ours, not yours to copy: the App's code, design, and compiled dataset are © 33knots. You get a personal, non-commercial licence to use the App. Copying, mirroring, scraping, bulk-downloading, or using the App or its data (including with AI tools) to build a competing or derivative product is prohibited. Builds and data files carry provenance watermarks. The underlying government regulations themselves remain public information.
• Third-party data isn't ours to restrict: map data from OpenStreetMap contributors (Open Database License), Government of Canada and Province of BC data (Open Government Licences), and Canadian Hydrographic Service NONNA bathymetric and tide/water-level data (CHS NONNA Licence and CHS Licence Agreement) are not owned by 33knots, are not part of our compiled-dataset copyright, are never watermarked, and the copying, scraping, and redistribution rules above do not apply to them; that data stays available to you under its own licence, from its own source (Terms §5, §6, §7). Provenance watermarks mark only our own compiled dataset, including curated compilations built on open-government data, never this third-party data. See the ODbL notice below for the OpenStreetMap-derived files offered under ODbL §4.6, and the CHS Tides notice below.
• No warranty: provided "as is", with no warranty of accuracy, completeness, currency, or fitness. Not a navigation or safety tool; depth, tide, and weather are approximate.
• Limitation of liability: to the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any fine, penalty, loss, damage, or harm arising from your use of, or reliance on, the App, including any error, omission, or closure it failed to show. You use it at your own risk and agree to indemnify us.
• Payments: nothing in the App can charge you today. When optional Pro subscriptions launch, the exact CAD price, renewal term, cancellation, and a 7-day no-questions refund policy for web purchases will be shown on the purchase screen before you confirm (Terms §8). The core verdict stays free.
• Governing law: British Columbia, Canada.

Full Terms: TERMS.md

Privacy, the essentials

• No ad trackers, no advertising, no profiling. No advertising SDKs, no data brokers, nothing that follows you across other apps or sites, and we never sell your data. The App uses PostHog, a US-hosted product-analytics service, to record usage events so we can see what works and fix what breaks, only after you have seen the in-app notice. The events are app opened, mode switched, card opened, layer toggled, species picked and page views (no query string). They carry a random ID stored on this device, not tied to your name or email, and carry no name, email, coordinates or spot data. PostHog receives your IP address with each request, as any web service does; location lookup from it is switched off. No cookies are set. See Section 7 of the Privacy Policy.
• An account is optional. The App works fully without one. If you do sign in, that is handled by Clerk using Apple or Google, and Clerk receives your email and the identity your provider returns, under Clerk's privacy policy.
• Your data stays on your device. Saved spots, catch log, imported sonar depth logs and tracks, your licence copy and photo, favourite species and settings are all stored on-device and never uploaded. Clearing the App's data deletes them; we keep no copy.
• Beta testers only: when you press Send on a comment, the comment text, a screenshot of the map, the exact spot you tapped, the open panel, selected species, a verdict snippet, your browser info and app version are uploaded to our database. Nothing is sent unless you press Send.
• Third-party requests: to load map tiles and live weather, tide, river and notice data, your device contacts Esri, DFO, MET Norway and Environment and Climate Change Canada. They receive your IP and the coordinates or map area requested, under their own privacy policies. Tapping "Open in Windy" shares a rounded, roughly 1 km area.
• Wind and marine forecasts: Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence, Canada). Forecast data: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
• Closure alerts (opt in): your browser's anonymous push subscription, with no name, email, or location, is stored only to deliver DFO closure alerts. Turn alerts off to stop them.
• Deleting your data: clear the App's data to erase everything held on your device, that alone is not enough to delete an account. To delete your account (your Clerk sign-in, invite-code record, and any feedback sent while signed in), use Profile > Delete account in the App, or delete-account.html if you don't have the App installed. For beta feedback rows sent without signing in, email [email protected] and we will delete them.

Full Privacy Policy: PRIVACY.md

Seafloor relief (and future depth layers): Canadian Hydrographic Service notice

The shaded seafloor relief on the map, and any future depth layers, are derived from Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) NONNA bathymetric data. They are for non-navigational use only. The CHS NONNA Licence requires this notice on any product made from that data:

This product was made by 33knots (Catchable) and contains intellectual property of the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

This product does not meet the requirements of the Navigation Safety Regulations, 2020 under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001. Charts and publications issued by or on the authority of CHS must be used to meet the requirements of those regulations.

The copyright in the data are and remain the property of His Majesty the King in Right of Canada and shall not be sold, licensed, leased, assigned or given to a third party.

The incorporation of CHS data in this product does not constitute an endorsement or an approval of this product by the Canadian Hydrographic Service, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans or His Majesty the King in Right of Canada.

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence, Canada. Depths are referenced to Chart Datum and reflect conditions at the time of survey, which may have changed. Carry and use official CHS charts on the water.

The App's legacy depth-band and sounding layers (public domain) are the "GEBCO 2020 Grid via OpenTopoData, not for navigation."

OpenStreetMap data: Open Database License (ODbL) notice

Some map data in the App comes from OpenStreetMap contributors and is licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0, not owned by 33knots and not covered by the Compilation copyright in Terms §6. It carries the attribution "(c) OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)" on the map wherever it is drawn, linking here, per ODbL §4.3. It is never watermarked and the App's no-copying, no-scraping and no-redistribution rules do not apply to it (Terms §6, §7).

Per ODbL §4.6, each file below is offered as an un-gated, un-watermarked extract, with the query or method used to build it. The underlying OpenStreetMap data is separately available at openstreetmap.org.

• data/boat_launches.geojson, OpenStreetMap leisure=slipway points via the Overpass API, built by scripts/fetch_boat_launches.mjs.
• data/setback_zones.geojson, wharf and marina geometry via the Overpass API mixed with DFO facility buffers, built by scripts/build_setback_geometry.mjs.
• data/regulatory_closures.geojson, mixed: 17 of 28 features are polygons geocoded via the OSM Nominatim API, the rest are digitised DFO closure text; offered whole rather than split, built by scripts/geocode_regulatory_closures.mjs and scripts/build_regulatory_closures.mjs.
• data/bc_coast.geojson, a committed coastline file whose OpenStreetMap origin is presumed but not yet confirmed (no producing script or licence header was found; see docs/LICENCE-INVENTORY.json for the trace and its evidence); offered on that presumption pending the lawyer read.

The full determination for every OpenStreetMap-touched file in the App, including files that are a Produced Work (attribution only, not offered as a raw extract) rather than a §4.6 offer, is in docs/LICENCE-INVENTORY.json.

Tides: Canadian Hydrographic Service notice

Tide and water-level data in the App comes from the CHS Integrated Water Level System (IWLS) under the CHS Licence Agreement, which bars use "for commercial purposes, for sale or profit", requires this notice, and does not permit navigational use. The Agreement also requires destroying all copies of the data within 15 days of termination. Every tide and water-level feature is free and is never part of Catchable Pro, for that reason. See docs/LICENCE-EXPOSURE.md for background.

This product is not to be used for navigation. This product was made by or for 33knots (Catchable) and contains intellectual property (Data) of the Canadian Hydrographic Service of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The copyrights in the Data are and remain the property of His Majesty the King in Right of Canada and shall not be sold, licensed, leased, assigned or given to a third party. The incorporation of the Data in this product does not constitute an endorsement or an approval of this product by the Canadian Hydrographic Service, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans or His Majesty the King in Right of Canada.

Questions? Contact [email protected]. This page is a good-faith summary and is not formal legal advice.