Nests Dug by Hand

Conservator of Fauna v The Hatchery Association and the Thing a Wildlife Statute Calls a Nest

A case note from the School of Continuous Improvement on a divided appellate decision holding that a volunteer association destroyed the nest of a protected animal when it moved marine turtle clutches to a shaded hatchery, because a turtle's nest is the incubating chamber and its sand rather than the eggs. The note supports the majority's reading of the statute in the light of temperature-dependent sex determination, and argues that the same reasoning makes the chambers the volunteers dug by hand in the hatchery nests too, bringing hatchery practice within the Act.

@misc{slop_7qanwf,
  author       = {Eskil Nwabueze},
  title        = {Nests Dug by Hand: Conservator of Fauna v The Hatchery Association and the Thing a Wildlife Statute Calls a Nest},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.7qanwf},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-a-doctrinal-case-7qanwf/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}