Prince William has claimed to have enjoyed the “best day of my life” as he was encouraged to spray pond water at journalists.
The royal aimed the cloudy water at the media as he joined school children in Guildford collecting DNA samples for NatureMetrics, a finalist in his environmental Earthshot Prize awards, on Wednesday.
As they were gathering water, NatureMetrics founder Dr Kat Bruce suggested William and the children try and spray some at nearby journalists.
The prince replied “great idea” as he filled up a syringe and took aim at the reporters nearby.
Although the sprays fell short, William was smiling and said: “Oh nearly, so nearly… This is the best day of my life – great fun.”
When two further attempts failed, the prince was given a tour of the nearby labs.
The samples were gathered with syringes with a filter to collect environmental DNA. He was shown how NatureMetrics then uses an extraction machine that produces a DNA code sequence which allows the team to identify everything from bacteria to a blue whale.
A finalist in the 2024 Earthshot Prize, the company is attempting to collect and report environmental DNA “to help commercial and conservation organisations make more informed choices to protect and maintain biodiverse ecosystems”.
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While at their laboratory, William said: “So much of what the environmental world needs right now is data. This is fantastic you guys have got this ability to be able to tell us what’s really there.
“There’s a lot of guesswork, there’s a lot of painstaking volunteers and science going into this, but actually what we need is to be able to understand bigger, large-scale projects as to what is in each area.”
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Dr Bruce said she told the prince to spray water at the journalists because “we always have fun when we’re doing sampling”.
“Once you’ve done it a couple of times, you’re like ‘oh we can have a bit of fun with this, where can we spray,'” she added.
Prince William is the founder and president of the Earthshot Prize, a global award that celebrates environmental initiatives.
