Data Accuracy Disclaimer — FishFinder Engine™

Status: DRAFT — for attorney review. Effective Date: [Effective Date] Version: 0.1-draft Read alongside: EULA / Terms of Use, AI Disclaimer, Location & Outdoor Safety Disclaimer.

This disclaimer governs the public-source data presented on FishFinder Engine — including lake metadata, fish surveys, stocking reports, water quality measurements, fishing regulations, species lists, depth and morphology statistics, and any related text or charts (the "Data").

By using the Service, you acknowledge and agree to this disclaimer.

1. We are not a state or federal agency

"All fisheries, lake, and survey data presented on FishFinder Engine is sourced from publicly available Department of Natural Resources databases and reports. Original data sources are cited at the bottom of each lake profile page. FishFinder Engine is not affiliated with or endorsed by any state DNR."

The Data is sourced from the public-facing systems of state Departments of Natural Resources, state Fish & Wildlife agencies, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Hydrography Dataset, and similar sources. We are an independent, for-profit company. References to state agencies are factual attribution only; they do not imply sponsorship, endorsement, partnership, or official affiliation.

2. The Data is informational, not authoritative

The Data is presented for general fishing-research purposes. It is not:

• the official record of any state agency;
• legal advice on fishing regulations, seasons, possession limits, or licensing requirements;
• an official map or boundary record;
• an official water-quality, ice-condition, or weather record;
• an official property-line, public-access, or easement record;
• a substitute for advice from a licensed professional.

For any decision that depends on the accuracy of the Data, you must verify the information directly with the relevant state or federal agency before acting on it.

3. The Data may contain errors, omissions, or outdated entries

The Data is ingested from many heterogeneous sources, including:

• JSON / REST APIs published by state agencies (≈ 25+ states, including Minnesota DNR LakeFinder, Wisconsin FMIS, Iowa AQuIA, Washington Socrata SODA, and others);
• Esri ArcGIS REST feature services hosted by states such as North Dakota Game & Fish, Montana FWP, Nebraska Game & Parks, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, South Carolina DNR, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, and others;
• HTML scraping of state websites where no structured API is available (e.g., Kansas KDWP, Texas TPWD, Oklahoma ODWC, Iowa Fish Iowa, Illinois IDNR, Alabama, and others);
• PDF parsing of state survey, stocking, or report PDFs (e.g., South Dakota GF56 reports, certain Wisconsin surveys, Connecticut stocking PDFs);
• the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for lake enumeration;
• per-state CSV imports (e.g., Wisconsin FMIS stocking export, Texas TWDB reservoir levels).

Possible defects include, without limitation:

• typographical or transcription errors in source documents;
• units inconsistencies (for example, fields whose source label says inches/pounds but whose values arrive in millimeters/grams — a known pattern in some Montana FWP feeds);
• conflicting coordinate systems (decimal degrees vs. degrees-minutes- seconds vs. degrees-decimal-minutes), and the geocoding errors that follow from misclassification;
• duplicate or near-duplicate lake records;
• species names that differ between states and that we normalize (e.g., "WAE" → "Walleye"); reconciliation can be wrong;
• HTML structure changes that break a parser between data refreshes;
• PDF parsing errors;
• agency data that is itself stale or has been silently revised;
• coverage gaps where a state has not published recent surveys.

4. Coverage is incomplete and unequal

We support 40+ states as of the Effective Date, with a roadmap to all 50. Some states have rich, structured APIs. Others are HTML-scraped with limited structure. The depth, freshness, and quality of the Data therefore varies by state, by lake, and over time. We compute an internal completeness_score per lake (0.0–1.0) that surfaces relative confidence, but the score is a heuristic, not a guarantee.

We expressly do not consume Wisconsin walleye / muskellunge population reports that require MyWisconsin ID authentication — these are not publicly accessible without a login and are out of scope.

5. PDF embeds may be temporarily disabled

As of the Effective Date, embedded depth maps and aquatic-plant survey PDFs are disabled in the lake profile UI pending legal review of republication rights. The DNR profile-link button still routes you to the state agency's own page.

6. Fishing regulations require independent verification

Fishing-regulation summaries on FishFinder Engine are derived from state-agency materials and may be:

• incomplete (we may not display every regulation that applies);
• stale (regulations change, sometimes mid-season);
• misinterpreted (parsing or summarization can introduce errors);
• inapplicable to your situation (special-water rules, tribal waters, border waters, kids-only waters, and other carve-outs may not be reflected).

You must verify current fishing regulations, seasons, possession limits, size limits, license requirements, and special waters with your state fisheries agency before fishing. Violation of state fishing law is your responsibility, not ours.

7. Lake access and conditions are not guaranteed

A lake appearing on the Service does not mean:

• that the lake is open to the public;
• that a public access exists;
• that a boat ramp is operational;
• that the lake is safe to enter today;
• that ice is safe to walk or drive on at any time;
• that the lake is suitable for swimming, boating, or fishing under current conditions.

Conditions, access rights, and regulations can change without notice. Always check current local conditions, posted signage, and access rules before you go.

8. Species and stocking information is descriptive, not predictive

The presence of a species in our Data means only that the species was recorded by the source agency at some past survey. It does not mean the species is currently present, currently legal to harvest, currently in season, or that you will catch one. Stocking history is similarly descriptive — past stocking does not guarantee current populations.

9. AI-generated and AI-cached content sit on top of the Data

AI summaries, lake report cards, species guides, and follow-up answers operate on top of the Data and inherit its defects. They may also add errors of their own. See the AI Disclaimer. AI lake report cards in particular are cached and may be days, weeks, or months old.

10. We use rate-limited, polite crawling

We crawl public state systems with rate limiting (typically 0.3–0.5 seconds between requests), a clearly identified User-Agent header (FishFinderEngine/1.0), one state at a time, on a weekly cycle, with no parallelism. We make a good-faith effort to avoid disrupting any source. If you are a state agency and want us to adjust crawl behavior, contact [Contact Email].

11. Limits

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties — express or implied — relating to the Data, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. See the limitation-of-liability section of the EULA / Terms of Use.

[Attorney Review Needed] — confirm per-state government-edicts theory for displayed fishing regulations; confirm Esri/ArcGIS public-feature-service commercial-use posture; confirm Socrata terms; review HTML-scraping ToS for each scraped state.

This document is a non-attorney first pass and is not legal advice.