Warnings as Moko keeps up his fish deliveries

Moko the dolphin is giving people fish – but taking away their surfboards.

An expert on dolphin behaviour says Moko's antics are normal but warns that he is becoming increasingly dangerous.

Gisborne man Karl Geiseler, 47, said he was surfing with a group off Wainui Beach last week when Moko approached with a big fish. "He was playing with this 30-kilogram kingfish, it was definitely a kingie," Mr Geiseler, who runs an events company in Gisborne, said yesterday.

"He was presenting it to people. They'd grab it but then he'd hold on to it and flick it away. The fish was still alive. Then we tied a leg rope to the tail of the kingfish but the fish started taking a young fellow on his board out to sea.

"We gave the fish back to Moko and he played with it all day. It was pretty dead by the end."

Surfers had to be careful because the dolphin liked to play with surfboards, and had stranded a few surfers by taking their boards away, Mr Geiseler said.

DOC ranger Jamie Quirk said he knew of at least three other instances of Moko giving people fish.

Last month he presented two fishermen in a dinghy with a snapper weighing nearly 13kg, and when the crew of a commercial fishing boat threw him a piece of squid he returned the compliment by bringing them a kahawai. Earlier, at Mahia, he had given a girl a sea dragon, a type of sea horse.

Rochelle Constantine, a behavioural ecologist at Auckland University, was unsurprised by Moko's behaviour. "It's very predictable behaviour for a solitary sociable bottlenose dolphin.

"He's treating people as he would other dolphins. Food-sharing is part of dolphin behaviour and so is playing with food."

Moko was not yet adult or sexually active. As the dolphin grew older and bigger, Dr Constantine expected his behaviour to become more aggressive.

"He could become very, very dangerous to humans," she said. "He could drag them out to sea, or pin them on the seabed.

"History shows solitary sociable dolphins have caused serious injuries to people and one killed someone."

DOC is considering mass text messages to warn 20,000 visitors heading to Gisborne in the holidays, especially those going to the Rhythm & Vines festival, to be careful around Moko.

- © Fairfax NZ News