In March 2013 it was announced that two sharks caught near Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia in 2011 had been identified as Cirrhigaleus barbifer.

[4] Cirrhigaleus barbifer was established by Tanka in 1912 as a new genus and species within Squalidae (dogfish) based on a single male individual that was found in the Tokyo Fish Market, but was later identified as being from the Sagami Sea.

Elsewhere, Herre had proposed a new genus and species for a female Cirrhigaleus barbifer found in Misaki Bay in Japan.

Herre had initially dubbed this individual Phaenopogon barbulifer, but upon discovery of Tanka’s records, conceded the name to Cirrhigaleus barbifer.

Garman (1913), Fowler (1941), and Bigelow and Schroeder (1948, 1957), used both accounts by Tanka and Herre to determine the status of Cirrhigaleus and how it relates to Squalus.

There have been noted instances of Cirrhigaleus barbifer in New Zealand and Western Australia, suggesting that the species has a broader habitat range.