Figure 1. Past and present ranges of Acipenser dabryanus. Data from Nichols (1943), Wu et al. (1963), Yang (1986), Zhang (1988), Ke et al.
(1989), He (1990), Zen et al. (1990) and the research of the authors. Names of places on the map are consistent with those used in the New
York Times Atlas of the World, Third Revised Concise Edition.
upperreaches of theYangtzeRiver(Yang1986,
Zen et al. 1990, H e 1990).Asa result ofoverfishing,
pollutionand habitat alteration and destruction,
Dabry’ssturgeonpopulations have beendeclining
for the last twodecades(Wu1990).Thespecies now
rarelyoccurs in reachesbelow theGezhoubaDam,
which wasbuilt in 1981 across theYangtzeRiver at
Yichang,HubeiProvince (Figure 1).Commercial
capture ofDabry’ssturgeon in theYangtzeRiver
has been banned since theearly1980swhen it was
listed as anendangeredspeciesunder thestate’s
special protection in Category 1.Unfortunately, this
listingseems to have occurred toolate tosignifi-
cantly impact conservation ofwildpopulations of
Dabry’ssturgeon.
Thispaperreviews thegeneralbiology andlife
history ofDabry’ssturgeon and provides asourceTableI.Meristic features of adult Dabry’s sturgeon (modified from Fu 1988).