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<\/a><\/p>\nMussel up <\/p>\n
With waders strapped on over PWD polos and khakis, Butler and his team enter the water to place colonies of freshwater mussels in the canal. It\u2019s become a markedly more pleasant experience over the past four years as their work has gradually cleared the water. The PWD calls the introduction of these mussels to the Canal nature-based infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Since 2022, Butler\u2019s team has placed approximately 5,000 juvenile mussels into the Canal.<\/a> Each mussel filters approximately six to 10 gallons of water a day, feeding on algae and bacteria and helping clean the canal. Back when the waterway was dug in 1819, these bivalve mollusks were abundant in the region, but two centuries of industrialism had endangered or entirely extirpated them from their historical range.<\/p>\n Thus, PWD cannot pull from an already abundant stock of mussels; they have to be bred. The aim is to put a million mussels into the canal, which would filter six to 10 million gallons of water per day. They are years away from that goal, but 100,000 mussels are already bred and ready to be implemented.<\/p>\n But Butler and his team don\u2019t expect the mussels to do all the work. Spearheaded by environmental engineer Maria Horowitz, PWD also operates a physical cleanup plan. The Marine Debris and Floatables Program removes trash from the canal weekly. The Manayunk Development Corporation and Friends of the Manayunk Canal help remove debris, too. In 2025, the PWD felt enough progress had been made to be able to gradually open the locks connecting the Canal to the Schuylkill River for the first time in 85 years.<\/p>\n Now, with the mussels working full-time to purify the water, and flow reintroduced from the Schuylkill, the Manayunk Canal looks like a postcard. In the summer, it\u2019s easy to find egrets making their nesting grounds, huge snapping turtles lurk under logs \u2014 and, of course, fish.<\/p>\n Granted, many of these species existed in the ecosystem around the canal before the PWD\u2019s work, and as of early summer 2026, the fish seem smaller (younger) and less numerous than in seasons past.<\/p>\n As the cleanup effort progresses, Butler says there may come a time when the PWD adds more than just mussels. Perhaps they\u2019ll reintroduce extirpated native plants to the canal. \u201cBut what we\u2019re doing right now is just watching, waiting, and learning to see what submerged aquatic vegetation persists after flow reintroduction,\u201d Butler says.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, on any given spring, summer, or fall afternoon, you\u2019ll once again find fishermen here from all over the city. In fact, the Canal\u2019s popularity as a fishing destination has grown to the point that it can even sustain a small bait-and-tackle shop.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n God\u2019z Rod\u2019z & Reel\u2019z is contractor Joe Zajko\u2019s passion project. He runs the business out of his garage at 449 Roxborough Avenue, just over half a mile from the canal. Zajko sells his own brand of fishing rods, reels, and apparel, as well as tackle and live bait \u2014 worms, minnows, and mealworms.<\/p>\n Zajko has been casting his line around Philadelphia for over 40 years. He remembers catching panfish in front of the Valley Green Inn along the Wissahickon Creek as a child with his grandfather.<\/p>\n