Known from Western Australia to Tasmania (Ref. 75154).

Rare off Victoria and Tasmania (Ref. 6871).

Commercial fishery: Heavily fished in Western Australia, adults are mainly targeted though the species is exploited over its entire range. The Busselton region yields about half of the total Western Australian catch. Main fishing methods include bottom set gillnets, longlines, handlines and droplines. Gillnets which vary in length from about 100 m to nearly 3 km (Ref. 13841) take most of the catch. Longline sets may reach up to 12.8 km long, the average length being 6.8 km carrying 970 hooks (Ref. 13841). Mullet (Mugilidae), pilchards (Sardinops neopilchardus), Perth herring (Nematalosa vlaminghi), squid, and octopus are used as bait. Fished at an average depth of 24 m (Ref. 13841); at 50 m using handlines. Present as an incidental catch of demersal otter trawlers off South Australia. Marketed fresh for human consumption.

Recreational fishery: There is little recreational fishing of whiskery shark. The largest specimen caught by a recreational angler was 12.9 kg from near Perth (Australian Anglers Association record).

Resource status: In western Australia, whiskery sharks were estimated to comprise about 40% of the shark catch in the 1960s. From the early 1980s, however, the catch per unit effort has declined and the individual length and weight have fallen (Refs. 13840, 13841). A 1990 estimate (Ref. 13843) puts the stock at about 18% of virgin (i.e. unfished) biomass. The whiskery shark stock in Western Australia were heavily fished and over-exploited in 1991 (Ref. 13843).

Also Ref. 244, 7300.