By Tim Lambourne
Scientists are getting a quarter-million-dollar boost to help research the mysterious and poisonous sea slug that has been washing up on Auckland beaches.
The slugs are responsible for the deaths of five dogs on Auckland's North Shore.
The slimy little sea slug is a lot more dangerous than it looks. It's filled with tetrodotoxin, a lethal poison also found in the blue ring octopus and the puffer fish.
"They're very potent neurotoxins, so they affect your nerves and so in fact the cause of death is by paralysis, essentially," says Paul McNabb of the Cawthorn Institute.
Last summer five dogs were killed when they ate slugs that had washed up on North Shore beaches.
Local iwi are worried about the toxin spreading to seafood, and have contributed to the research grant.
"We were concerned about our whanau who gather kaimoana around the shores of the Hauraki Gulf, and wanting to ensure there was some good awareness," says Liane Ngamane of the Hauraki Maori Trust Board.
The sea slug will be much easier to study than other poisonous sea creatures.
"We started this work on the Australian blue ringed octopus, and that was a difficult organism to work with," says Professor Brett Neilanof the University of NSW.
"We also did a bit of work with puffer fish, but it's kind of fortuitous that this has happened now in New Zealand that we have a biological model for the production of this very potent toxin."
"We're hoping we can look at the source of the tetrodotoxin, so where the toxin comes from, and how the slugs accumulate it, and even possibly why they do it and what they use it for," says Mr McNabb.
The research will take two years, so in the meantime if you're thinking about getting up close and personal to the little charmer - think again.
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