Researchers are meeting in Nelson to try to better understand the cause of a toxin in the sea-slugs that killed several dogs last year.
Five dogs died on Auckland beaches around the Hauraki Gulf, with scientists blaming tetrodotoxin, a poison found in sea slugs.
The toxin also exists in the Japanese puffer fish.
Cawthron Institute chief executive Gillian Wratt says it is a challenge to find out how the toxin gets into the species and how it survives.
