Courtesy of the ABC

New Zealand swimmers are being warned not to go out into the sea alone - or they risk getting a little too much love from a lonely dolphin.

Moko the dolphin took up residence at Mahia, on the east coast of the North Island, last year.

Since then hundreds of people have swum with him, but on the weekend things got out of hand with one woman.

Moko wanted to keep playing and kept swimming in circles around the woman, stopping her from returning to the beach.

She panicked, jumped on a buoy 200 metres out to sea and screamed for help.

Fisherman Joe Hedley says Moko is craving human company.

"He lets you hang onto his fins, swims around his legs, lets you pat and scratch him," he said.

"He'll come right in to knee-deep water".

He says people should stay close to shore and only swim with Moko if they are in a group.