 It is taken in small numbers by commercial and recreational fisheries, and for the aquarium trade.The bluegrey carpetshark was described by Australian ichthyologist James Douglas Ogilby as a species of "Brachaelurus", in a 1908 issue of "Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland".He named the shark after his friend John Colclough, and based his account on two immature males about long from Moreton Bay in Queensland, one of which was later "accidentally destroyed".