[2] It is found landlocked in Russia in a single locality, Lake Abrau, located at 70 m above sea level near the Black Sea coast close to Novorossiysk.

[3] The lake is small and has been stocked by several alien species, whence the Abrau sprat is considered critically endangered.

[4] As a result of the 2019 expedition, several individuals of the Abrau sprat were caught and their mitocondrial genome were sequenced, which showed their identity with the museum specimens.

[5] This confirmed that the C. abrau is present in the fish community and is capable of reproducing in the Lake Abrau.

[5] A sprat of the Lake Apolyont in Turkey, linked to the Sea of Marmara, was earlier treated as a subspecies of the Abrau sprat, Clupeonella abrau muhilisi, but has more recently been considered an independent species Clupeonella muhlisi.