First Vessel Made Entirely From Mushrooms Paves the Way for Plastic Alternative

A kayaker paddles crossed unfastened water. Credit: Erik & Pia Sjostedt / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Artist and mycologist Sam Shoemaker has completed a 26-mile open-ocean crossing successful a vas oregon kayak made wholly from mushrooms, a travel supporters accidental highlights the imaginable of fungi arsenic an alternate to plastic.

Shoemaker launched from Catalina Island successful aboriginal August and paddled to San Pedro, conscionable southbound of Los Angeles. The travel lasted 12 hours. He carried a phone, a camera, a walkie-talkie, and a compass strapped to his vest.

The vessel, grown from mycelium, weighed 107 pounds and included a keel for stability. Unlike accepted kayaks, its aboveground was unsmooth and uneven successful texture, a earthy people of the fungi that produced it.

Whale brushwood connected the journey

Three hours into the crossing, Shoemaker said helium grew seasick portion pushing done his ninth mile with nary onshore successful sight. Then a fin whale surfaced nearby. The 50-foot carnal trailed the kayak for 3 miles.

“It was conscionable similar a psychedelic experience,” Shoemaker said aft reaching shore.

Backed by advocates of fungi

Family and friends welcomed him connected land, celebrating some the idiosyncratic milestone and what they called a objection of fungi’s imaginable successful replacing plastics successful boats and different aquatic gear.

Phil Ross, Shoemaker’s mentor and co-founder of MycoWorks, coined the word “AquaFung” for mushroom-based materials utilized successful water. Ross said the worldly carries the aforesaid lightweight and buoyant properties arsenic plastic but is biodegradable.

An American antheral crossed dozens of kilometers successful a mushroom boat

U.S. creator and mycologist Sam Shoemaker paddled 42 kilometers successful a kayak grown wholly from mushroom mycelium. The travel took 12 hours, and the vessel held unneurotic without falling apart.

The kayak wasn’t assembled… pic.twitter.com/uAVkBdUr15

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“People hatred Styrofoam plastics successful the h2o washing onto shore,” Ross said. “[AquaFung] is biodegradable. It acts a batch similar the worldly that everyone seems to hate.”

Ross, who besides co-founded the nonprofit Open Fung, helped bring mycelium materials into mainstream use, including mushroom “leather” utilized successful handbags, furniture, and aesculapian devices.

A increasing field

Shoemaker is lone the 2nd idiosyncratic to water-test a mushroom boat. In 2019, Nebraska nonmigratory Katy Ayers acceptable a Guinness World Record by increasing and paddling the world’s longest fungal canoe.

“A batch of radical truly didn’t deliberation it was possible,” Ayers said. “I had reached retired to companies who really marque the biomaterials, and their spokespeople weren’t assured successful it working, but I was assured and naive capable to springiness it a changeable and fig retired what the shortcomings were.”

Shoemaker began sculpting with fungi during his MFA studies astatine Yale successful 2020 earlier turning to functional design. His first mushroom boat, built successful 2024, took astir a twelvemonth to cultivate and dry. The second, larger, and sturdier vas that carried him crossed the unfastened water was finished successful June.

Progress but limitations remain

Ross called the California crossing “remarkable.” Shoemaker said the task shows committedness but urged caution.

“People speech astir mushrooms being this utopian aboriginal wherever integrative problems spell away, [but] this is not the metallic slug wherever boats are easier to make,” helium said. “I’m pleased with however acold this task has gone, but there’s a agelong mode to go.”