Free Access Commitments
What stays free, and how firmly

What We Promise

1. Locked Commitments

For as long as Fluctus operates any buoy, we will provide the following free of charge. We will never withdraw, reduce or charge for them.

1.1 Safety alerts. Anyone can sign up for rough-sea alerts for any buoy, by text message and in the app. An alert is sent when measured wave height or period crosses the thresholds we publish. The thresholds are set with fishing and maritime users and reviewed each year. We may add channels, but never remove the free text alert. Readings and alerts are advisory. They do not replace official warnings from the Barbados Meteorological Services or the Coast Guard, and you remain responsible for your own decisions at sea.

1.2 Government access. Barbados government agencies, including the Coast Guard, the Department of Emergency Management, the Coastal Zone Management Unit, the Fisheries Division and the Meteorological Services, get:

• all live readings and the full archive, by API and by download;
• every alert we produce;
• a report after every named storm or significant swell event;
• the same service levels as our highest paid plan.

They may use the data for any public purpose, including sharing it with other public bodies and publishing safety warnings.

1.3 No conflict. No commercial agreement, investment or sale of the company may restrict these commitments, and every customer agreement says so.

2. Commitments With 12 Months' Notice

These stay free unless we give at least 12 months' public notice of a change on fluctus.cloud, and email everyone who uses them.

2.1 The glance. Anyone can see the latest wave height, period and direction at every buoy on fluctus.cloud and in the free app, updated at least hourly, without an account. The glance is free to view and quote with attribution. Bulk reuse, republishing it as a feed, or resale is not permitted.

2.2 Research and schools. Researchers at universities, research institutes and intergovernmental bodies, and teachers and students at schools, can apply for free live and archive access for non-commercial study, teaching and publication. We answer within 14 days, and we publish who qualifies.

2.3 What a change cannot do. A change can reduce or end these commitments only going forward. It cannot take away data already downloaded under them, and it cannot touch the locked commitments in section 1.

3. How the Commitments Are Made Binding

A promise on a web page is easy to quietly drop. These commitments are written into five places, so dropping them would mean breaking a contract or the company's own rules.

The government agreement is the strongest of these. Government has a direct contractual right, and the permit to moor depends on it.

4. Fair Use, and if Fluctus Is Sold or Closes

4.1 Fair use. Free access is for the uses described in sections 1 and 2. It may not be used to resell the data, build a competing commercial feed, or scrape the site in bulk. Research access may not be passed to a commercial partner. We may suspend free access for anyone who breaks these rules, but we will never suspend safety alerts for that reason.

4.2 If Fluctus is sold. Any buyer of the company, its buoys or its data must take on these commitments in writing as a condition of the sale.

4.3 If Fluctus closes. If we stop operating the buoys, we will:

• give at least 6 months' notice to government and to every safety-alert subscriber;
• offer the buoys and moorings to the Government of Barbados, or a body it names, at no more than their depreciated value;
• give government a full copy of the archive, and publish it openly for research under an open licence.

Changes to This Page

Every change to these commitments is listed here with its date.

See also the Terms of Use, the Founding Backer Terms and the Privacy Policy.