If Hollywood made a movie about some of the fish species clinging to survival in the Savannah River near Augusta, it could qualify as a remake of The Incredible Journey.

American shad, for example, appear in the river each spring as they swim up from the Atlantic Ocean to spawn in the rocky shoals near the Augusta Canal headgates.

What many people don't realize, however, is that those shad have completed a unique, 3,000-mile journey that has taken them out to sea for three to eight years.

"The fish you see in the Savannah were actually spawned here," said fisheries biologist Prescott Brownell, whose employer - the National Marine Fisheries Service - is working to restore shad populations along the East Coast.

The shad, which travel in huge schools to Canada and Iceland as they slowly mature, were a perennial food staple for Indian tribes and Colonial settlers in the Augusta area, he told members of the local Sierra Club last week.

In the 1700s, an estimated 10 million shad made the journey upstream each season.

In the past 150 years, however, dams along the river have eliminated more than 95 percent of the shoals habitat the fish once used to spawn, and today's migrations include only 200,000 to 300,000 fish.

"They're almost gone - nearly depleted," he said. "This is not just in the Savannah River but in all the rivers of the eastern seaboard."

Why should people care?

"We've learned a lot more about the decline of these fish over the last 20 years that we didn't know before," he said.

For example, biologists now realize that declining populations of important food fish (tuna, codfish, redfish and many members of the mackerel family) are somehow tied to the decline in forage fish such as American shad and their cousins, the blueback herring. Whales and dolphins also depend on shad.

Also in decline in the Savannah River are the shortnose sturgeon, a federally endangered fish that takes seven years to reach spawning maturity; the Atlantic sturgeon, which can live a century and reach lengths of 12 feet or more; and the American eel, which lives in rivers and returns to the sea after 17 years to spawn - and then dies.

Dams that impede upstream migration also create huge lakes that eliminate shoals and other habitat certain fish need.

The Savannah River, blocked below Augusta by New Savannah Bluff Lock & Dam, is no exception, although small numbers of shad are able to pass through the lock.

Efforts to reverse the trend are expanding, but still have a long way to go.

"We feel we have an excellent opportunity here to restore what could have been a lost legacy," Brownell said.

Current plans include building a fishway around New Savannah Bluff to encourage more fish to make the upstream journey past Augusta.

Negotiations also are under way to add a fish passage area at Augusta's Diversion Dam at the canal headgates and to the S.C. Electric & Gas Company's Stevens Creek Dam just upstream.

"The area at issue is Thurmond Dam to Augusta, where there is just 2 percent of the remaining habitat," he said. "It's all we have left, so we need to make the best use of that stretch of river if we want the fish to return."

The federal interest in the Savannah River shoals is mirrored in other river systems along the East Coast, he said. The gradual restoration of forage fish could slow, or perhaps someday reverse, the decline of major marine species.

"You can't overemphasize how important these fish here in Augusta are to so many major marine species," he said. "If we can get some of these important areas opened up to migrating fish again, I think it's a success story in the making."

LATER PERMITS: Georgia authorities who manage a random drawing for 250 nonmilitary hunting and fishing permits at Fort Gordon have changed this year's application dates.

Letters of application will be accepted May 1-15, with the drawing May 16. In the past letters were accepted from March 1-15.

The letter should include the applicant's full name, address, social security number, date of birth and phone number. Applicants must be 16 or older and possess a valid Georgia Hunter Safety card or its equivalent. Applications should be sent to: Georgia DNR, Fort Gordon Hunt, 142 Bob Kirk Road, Thomson, Ga., 30824.

PHINIZY CLEANUP: Volunteers are needed for a planned cleanup at Phinizy Swamp Wildlife Management Area off Doug Barnard Parkway.

Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division will provide a truck and supplies to help volunteers remove trash dumped there by inconsiderate people.

The group will meet March 4 at 9 a.m. at the Gravel Pit Road parking and access area.

For information, contact the Thomson office of the Wildlife Resources Division, (706) 595-4222 or Chip Fiske, (706) 738-4229.

Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119 or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.

Georgia fisheries biologist Ed Bettross captured and tagged this shortnose sturgeon last fall. It is one of the Savannah River's endangered species. The fish was caught during studies aimed at restoring their dwindling populations.