{"id":525,"date":"2011-04-29T13:57:18","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T12:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=525"},"modified":"2011-04-29T13:57:18","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T12:57:18","slug":"william-kate-and-those-welsh-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2011\/04\/29\/william-kate-and-those-welsh-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"William, Kate, and those Welsh Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, eventually I managed to find an environmental angle to the wedding. \u00a0It seems that the use of Welsh gold for the wedding rings might (just might!) pose a threat to trout and salmon spawning. \u00a0As <a href=\"http:\/\/newsfeed.time.com\/2011\/01\/24\/will-making-kate-middletons-wedding-ring-kill-baby-fish-in-wales\/\">TIME<\/a> notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Conservationists and environmental activists fear the April 29 nuptial will spark renewed interest in Welsh gold causing demand to spike\u2014and sending gold prospectors into a frenzy. \u00a0And that has consequences for the environment. \u00a0Gold panners use shovels and hand-operated suction pumps to remove gravel and expose the bed rock of a river were the heavy metals are found. \u00a0That disturbs gravel where salmon and trout have laid their eggs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It seems that the issue emerged when a panhandler known locally as <em>Irish Brian<\/em> began digging holes that some officials said were deep enough to drop a car into. \u00a0 The Forestry Commission put up signs warning would-be prospectors they might well face unlimited fines and jail terms. \u00a0It's not at all clear, however, that panning for gold is against the law. \u00a0I particularly liked the comment from Vince Thurkettle, a full-time panner and former president of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldgoldpanningassociation.org\/\">World Gold Panning Association<\/a>, who is reported as saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You get people poaching for fish but you don't ban all fishermen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Indeed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, eventually I managed to find an environmental angle to the wedding. \u00a0It seems that the use of Welsh gold for the wedding rings might (just might!) pose a threat to trout and salmon spawning. \u00a0As TIME notes: Conservationists and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}