The species lives off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in depths of 500–1,450 m (1,640–4,760 ft).

Although it is sometimes caught as a bycatch, it does not have any major threats and is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

[2] Its name was taken after Thomas A. Griffiths, a professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, whose students called him "bat man".

[1] The black ghostshark lives in the southwestern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of south-eastern Australia,[6] from Portland, Victoria, to Ulladulla, New South Wales, covering the states of New South Wales, Tasmania, and Victoria.

At the current time, it does not have any major threats, so no conservation actions are taking place for the species and it is listed as least concern by the IUCN.