{"id":163294,"date":"2024-07-30T13:10:19","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T17:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/?p=163294"},"modified":"2024-12-20T10:31:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T15:31:58","slug":"stopping-ocean-plastics-one-mushroom-buoy-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/07\/stopping-ocean-plastics-one-mushroom-buoy-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Mycologist Stopping Ocean Plastics, One Mushroom Buoy at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s oceans are littered with plastics. Tiny microplastics, often invisible to the naked eye, swirl in our tidepools. Large pieces of plastic debris stretch across stretches of open sea. The majority of the ocean\u2019s plastic pollution comes from land-based sources, but nearly <\/span>20 percent originates in the fishing industry<\/span><\/a>. Gear is lost overboard, lines snap and drop waste into the sea, pots and buoys are abandoned, and bits and pieces of fishing and aquaculture float away.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lost fishing nets and buoys on the seabed. Photo by Andriy Nekrasov via Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Buoys are a key component of aquaculture and fisheries\u2014there are hundreds of thousands used in the United States alone. The buoy market, already a multi-billion-dollar industry, continues to <\/span>expand by 5.5 percent each year<\/span><\/a> thanks to increased interest in aquaculture farming. These buoyant orbs come in all shapes and sizes and help to moor lines, mark objects, and signal navigation. In the long history of ocean farming and exploration, we\u2019ve used wooden buoys, cork ones, and iron ones. But today, the majority of buoys on the ocean are made from styrofoam or other polystyrene and polyethylene plastic compounds. There are thousands of buoys in use for weather and navigation alone, and every lobsterman and oyster farmer uses several dozen at a minimum. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Read<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Lost plastic buoys float on the currents and join the tonnes of plastics that now cover as much as <\/span>40 percent of the world\u2019s seas<\/span><\/a>. Bits and pieces of plastic buoys break off or disintegrate in the ocean sun, joining billions of pieces of microplastics that end up in our seafood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is\u00a0almost half what is called \u201cghost gear,\u201d<\/a> fishing plastics lost overboard or abandoned. Thousands of pounds end up on the shore each year.\u00a0 Photo from Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You cannot have aquaculture without buoys\u2014but you can have buoys without plastic. Sue Van Hook had a lifetime of expertise in fungi when she joined <\/span>Ecovative Design<\/span><\/a> as the mycologist in 2007. Ecovative Design is a technology company focused on using mycelium\u2014the fine white vegetative filaments of fungus\u2014to solve human needs. After discovering early on in her research that mycelium would float, Van Hook quickly realized the potential for creating buoys.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sue Van Hook founder of Mycobbuoys, holding a red mooring buoy. Photo courtesy of Sue Van Hook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy grandfather turned his lobster buoys on a lathe in the \u201850s and \u201860s on North Haven Island,\u201d says Van Hook say, remembering her very first introduction to aquaculture\u2019s wooden floatation devices. \u201cI watched him do all that, all those years ago, and we helped paint the colors on and all of that stuff. And then I watched the whole ocean turn to Styrofoam, which at the time seemed fine, right? It was cheaper. They didn\u2019t have to go through all of that labor of crafting this beautiful thing individually, and they lasted a long time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As an adult, Van Hook had become a professor of environmental studies and focused on mycology, which she taught at Skidmore College for 18 years. Now observing the buoyancy of mycelium, it didn\u2019t take her long to remember her grandfather\u2019s lobster buoys and their shift to Styrofoam\u2014and to realize the environmental impact of an ocean full of Styrofoam buoys. She set to work designing and growing mycelium buoys.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Freshly painted buoys. Photo courtesy of Sue Van Hook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now the founder and CEO of her own company, <\/span>Mycobuoys<\/span><\/a>\u2122, Van Hook has pioneered the fungus alternative to plastic buoys. To make her buoys, Van Hook will take a rope of pasteurized hemp and inoculate it with a low percentage of mycelium wood rot fungus. The fungus will then grow, spread and take up whatever space it is given to fill. Originally, she used empty soda bottles, and today, she has prototypes up to the size of mooring buoys more than two feet in diameter.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Filling bottle-shaped buoys. Photo courtesy of Sue Van Hook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Van Hook has run into challenges finding the perfect fungus for the job, and she continues to work on the durability of the buoys. \u201cWe use wood rot fungus,\u201d she says, explaining that the type of mycelium that creates sturdier, more perennial mushrooms like reishi is more suited to the job than the lawn fungus that grows many culinary mushrooms. She has tested dozens of strains of fungus, and she continues to work through varieties in buoy trials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Buoy options. Photo courtesy of Sue Van Hook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently, Van Hook\u2019s Mycobuoy<\/span>s\u2122 are being tested at 11 oyster farms, shellfish hatcheries, and ocean schools throughout New England and New York. Her goal is to be able to guarantee the buoys for a full season before offering them for retail sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Learn<\/a><\/p>\n

Abigail Barrows was one of the first oyster farmers to trial Van Hook\u2019s Mycobuoys\u2122. Barrows has a background in marine biology and studies ocean microplastics. In 2015, she bought the lease on <\/span>Deer Isle Oyster Company<\/span><\/a> with a goal of turning it into a plastic-free oyster farm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were blown away by the process,\u201d Barrows says of her early experiences with mycelium buoys. \u201cIt was really exciting to grow something and then have this product which is so functional. And we were pretty excited about the potential application as we started our sea trials.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Abigail Barrows organizing Mycobuoys on her oyster boat. Photo by Kirsten Lie-Nielsen<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The greatest challenge for Mycobuoys\u2122 and those trialing the buoys is their durability. In addition to their hard plastic bodies, many of today\u2019s buoys have thick toxic paint shells. To create a durable shell for a Mycobuoy\u2122, both Van Hook and Barrows have experimented with natural paints that will protect the buoys from the sun, curious birds, and the hard use inherent in ocean farming.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still looking for a more rugged coating,\u201d explains Barrows, who has used pine tar and linseed coatings and linseed based paints on the buoys. \u201cThat would give them more robustness, because boats are going to bang into them, so we need to protect them for more than a season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to find that beautifully environmentally friendly coating to prolong the life of the buoys,\u201d says Van Hook. Today\u2019s plastic lobster buoys do not last forever\u2014at least not as functional aquaculture tools. Most lobstermen and oyster farmers will use a buoy for 20 or 25 years. Van Hook\u2019s goal for Mycobuoy\u2122 durability is a little bit shorter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Treating rope and a mooring buoy. Photo courtesy Sue Van Hook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy ideal business plan is that we grow the buoys every year,\u201d she says. \u201cYou buy your buoys at a reasonable price, you have it out there floating your cages for a year, and at the end, we buy it back from you and dry it, grind it ourselves for fertilizer or you could compost them in your own garden.\u201d Van Hook uses old mycelium buoy prototypes in her garden, where she never has to add fertilizer or composite thanks to the nutrition of the fungus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t have to store [the buoys] in your driveway or your yard,\u201d Van Hook continues, referring to the large piles of buoys that spring up on fishermen\u2019s lawns during the off-season, \u201cwhere all that UV light deteriorates the polyethylene plastic that they are currently using faster.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Take<\/a><\/p>\n

Recent legislation in South Korea will ban the use of <\/span>styrofoam buoys by 2025<\/span><\/a>, and Van Hook believes that other nations will soon follow. Van Hook hopes her buoys will retail around 10 percent to 20 percent above current plastic buoy prices and believes increasing restrictions on plastics will only make the mycelium option for buoys more appealing. Styrofoam and plastic buoys average between $20 and $50, depending on size, while the cost of Van Hook\u2019s buoys will depend on the ability to scale up production and the solution to the problem of a durable coating. Those interested in helping Van Hook trial Mycobuoys\u2122 can reach out to her via her <\/span>website<\/span><\/a> for 2025 buoys.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Mycobuoys and a plastic-alternative to oyster nets. Photo by Kirsten Lie-Nielsen<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As oyster farmers such as Barrows continue to trial buoys and Van Hook expands to more shapes and sizes, the future of Mycobuoys\u2122 is bright. On her quest to reduce ocean plastics, Van Hook may have stumbled on to an answer for more than just buoys.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is just so much potential here,\u201d says Barrows. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

P<\/span>lastics can be found in almost all fishing gear, from nets to floatation systems in boats. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is<\/span> almost half what is called \u201cghost gear,\u201d<\/span><\/a> fishing plastics lost overboard or abandoned. In addition to Mycobuoys\u2122, Barrows works on prototypes of wooden oyster cages, and she sells her oysters in <\/span>compostable beechwood bags<\/span><\/a> from a new company called <\/span>Ocean Farm Supply<\/span><\/a>. \u201cWe need to think outside of the box, in terms of using them for mooring balls, other kinds of floatation, other marine systems such as replacing styrofoam boat hulls and marine docks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s oceans are littered with plastics. Tiny microplastics, often invisible to the naked eye, swirl in our tidepools. Large pieces of plastic debris stretch across stretches of open sea. The majority of the ocean\u2019s plastic pollution comes from land-based sources, but nearly 20 percent originates in the fishing industry. Gear is lost overboard, lines snap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1891,"featured_media":163297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[33277],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33067],"tags":[33230,33261,33303],"article-theme":[33291],"class_list":["post-163294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm","tag-aquaculture","tag-technology","tag-waste","format-mtmf","article-theme-people"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the Mycologist Stopping Ocean Plastics, One Mushroom Buoy at a Time - Modern Farmer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today\u2019s oceans are littered with plastics. Tiny microplastics, often invisible to the naked eye, swirl in our tidepools. 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