Mycologist/Researcher Paul Stamitz Explains how Oyster Mushrooms Can Clean up the BP Oil Spill

Surviving the Middle Class CrashJuly 23, 2010
Mycologist/Researcher Paul Stamitz Explains how Oyster Mushrooms Can Clean up the BP Oil Spill
Posted by tempestodimare under Survival, Unique Ideas, Water, health | Tags: environment, mycoremediation, oil spill, Paul Stametz, BP, oysterm mushrooms |
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by Paul Stametz

Here is what we know about mycoremediation, based on tests conducted by myself, my colleagues and other researchers who have published their results. (See attached references.)


Oil being absorbed by mushroom mycelium

What we know:


1) [Update] We now know that one of our strains of Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) is tolerant to saltwater exposure. The mycelium fully colonizes salt water soaked straw. Our tests with MycoBooms™ (see below) are being conducted in the waters of the Puget Sound, the average salinity of which is approximately 3.3%, only .2% less than the average salinity of the world’s oceans.


2) Straw that has been inoculated with Oyster mushroom mycelium floats, making it a potential candidate for use in water-borne mycelial containment/filtration systems.


3) More than 120 novel enzymes have been identified from mushroom-forming fungi.


4) Various enzymes breakdown a wide assortment of hydrocarbon toxins.


5) My work with Battelle Laboratories, in collaboration with their scientists, resulted in TAH’s (Total Aromatic Hydrocarbons) in diesel contaminated soil to be reduced from 10,000 ppm to < 200 ppm in 16 weeks from a 25% inoculation rate of oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) mycelium, allowing the remediated soil to be approved for use as landscaping soil along highways. (Thomas et al., 1999; Thomas, 2000)
READ MORE HERE on Paul Stametz’s site: http://www.fungi.com/mycotech/petroleum_problem.html

SEE ALSO THIS SHORT YOUTUBE VIDEO: http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2010/06/02/mycoremediation-and-its-applications-in-oil-spills/

Drina Brooke’s note (I cross-posted the above): Please let us get citizens together to do oyster mushroom plantings on the affected shorelines and to float the straw bundles with mycelia out to sea. Please pass this on to your local churches, synagogues, school newsletters, etc and let’s recruit volunteers! Obtain grant funding information from the Foundation Center Library’s website: www.fdncenter.org Thank you all, Drina