[4] It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the Indo-Western Pacific and eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, including the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Cape Verde, the Western Sahara, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, Greenland, France, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Japan, Australia, Mauritania, Morocco, and Hawaii.

[3] The common name and species epithet "kaupii" refer to naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup.

The Kaup's arrowtooth eel is preyed on by Coryphaenoides rupestris.

[7] It is of no commercial interest to fisheries, but it is sometimes caught as by-catch by bottom longline and baited fish traps.

[3] Due to the widespread distribution of the species and its abundance in many regions, the IUCN redlist currently lists the Kaup's arrowtooth eel as Least Concern.