 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed this species as Near Threatened, as outside of Australia it is threatened by fisheries and habitat degradation.As of 2015, its IUCN status is Least Concern.Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker originally described the tasselled wobbegong in an 1867 volume of "Archives Néerlandaises des Sciences Exactes et Naturelles".