BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 1, 2022
This year a handful of oyster farms along the Maine coast grew buoys made of mycelium, the thread-like root systems that sprout mushrooms, and deployed them on a small scale this oyster season. The trial was done to see if the environmentally friendly buoys could be a substitute for some of the thousands of plastic foam buoys used across the Gulf of Maine. For the most part, the mushroom buoys worked fine, though more testing is needed. The idea to try alternatives to plastic buoys has risen from an environmental movement in Maine’s growing oyster industry. Oysters and other seafood can take in plastics that are found in the ocean and a Bowdoin College study from earlier this year found oysters at nine farms in Casco Bay all contained microplastics.