Norwich - As of Friday afternoon, there were 78 new scaly residents of the upper Shetucket River, swimming against the freshwater currents in search of a place to spawn.

The 78 fish - 69 American shad, six gizzard shad, two bass and one salmon - had already journeyed through Long Island Sound, then 16 miles north on the Thames River and into the fish lift at Greeneville Dam on the Shetucket. But they needed the help of Eric Dungan and others in the Norwich Utilities crew to get farther upstream.

At the state boat launch on the Lisbon-Norwich town line, Dungan opened the tank on the back of the utilities' "shad transport truck" to release a fish-laden waterfall into the river. The fish had been trapped that morning at the Greeneville fish lift, placed in the large tank attached to the back of a flatbed truck and driven about two miles to the release site.

Mark Greene, operations integrity manager at Norwich Utilities, said Friday's release will be repeated several times throughout the June spawning season as part of the company's ongoing contribution to shad restoration in the Shetucket.

As part of its agreement with government regulators to operate the hydroelectric dams at Greeneville and farther upstream at Occum, the utility installed the fish lift and a fish ladder at the two sites and is working with the state Department of Environmental Protection on ongoing efforts to restore the popular game fish to the Shetucket.

Historically, shad were plentiful in the Shetucket until the Industrial Revolution came, and with it, the construction of dams to provide power for mills along the river. That blocked access to ancestral spawning areas.

The restoration effort has only been partially successful thus far. While the fish are getting over the Greeneville dam in good numbers - about 2,500 last year - their numbers haven't been growing significantly in recent years because the spawning habitat between Greeneville and the next dam upriver is saturated, the DEP has concluded.

The next two hydroelectric dams upstream, both owned by First Light Power, a subsidiary of the French company GDF SUEZ, have fish lifts and a ladder that aren't working well, with fewer than 20 shad passing over the last two years. The DEP has been urging the company to make modifications.

Until that's done, Norwich Utilities will be helping the fish over the obstacles by taking them on the road. Greene said the DEP has done the transport for the last few years but had only been able to make a few trips a season because of limited equipment and staff. This year, the utility outfitted its own truck to make the deliveries itself.

"Now we can do this more often because we have the equipment to do it," Greene said. "As long as there are enough fish in our traps to transport, we'll do it."

j.benson@theday.com