Prince William wades through New York river as royal undeterred by challenging conditions
Prince William takes a dip in dirty waters
PA
Prince William surprised many fans when he took a dip in the water in Manhattan - a move which has been labelled brave by royal fans.
The Prince of Wales is in New York to announce the finalists of this year's Earthshot Prize, which is due to be held in Singapore.
William walked into the East River, which is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City.
Many tourists avoid coming into contact with the water, but the Prince of Wales took the experience in his stride.
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary
PA
Prince William walked in the waters as part of the Billion Oyster Project.
This is a non-profit organisation working to restore a billion oysters to the New York Harbour by 2035.
Agata Poniatowski, the public outreach manager for the Billion Oyster Project, said after the outing: “Having the Prince join us here in the water in New York changes that perspective of the water, where people think it’s so dirty, it’s so gross.
“But really, you know, the water is swimmable on certain days of the week.
Prince William changed the perspective of the Manhattan waters
PA
“We want to work on that change in perspective, and the Prince really helped us with that.”
The Prince landed in New York after taking a commercial flight, and then travelled to Governor’s Island by boat.
He was photographed meeting with restaurateurs, volunteers, staff and students involved with the project on the island.
Prince William later took another boat to Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is wear he walked in the water to look at the oysters.
LATEST ROYAL NEWS:
The Prince of Wales with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
PA
He then met with 12-year-old students from Harbour Middle School and measured the oysters with them.
The Prince of Wales is in New York on behalf of his environmental initiative, The Earthshot Prize.
The 15 finalists for this year’s awards will be unveiled on Tuesday at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit.
This is being co-hosted by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Philanthropies.