Wellington  - Moko, a bottlenose dolphin that has frolicked off a New Zealand beach for more than 18 months, has become so tame that she catches fish for swimmers, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

"She has actually been bringing fish to people," Jamie Quirk, a Department of Conservation manager at Wairoa, on the east coast of the North Island, told the Dominion Post.

"Some lucky people have had her bring them seahorses."

Moko, who arrived off Mahia Beach, about 50 kilometres from Wairoa, at Easter 2007, is getting tamer than ever, said local resident Bill Shortt.

"It's really amusing," he said. "She comes right in to the shore now, into only a few feet of water, to play with the children."

The paper said the 3-year-old dolphin apparently enjoys socialising with swimmers and boaties and has taken bodyboards, crayfish buoys and rugby balls out to sea as playthings, never to be seen again.

Conservation Department field officer Malcolm Smith said, "We are a bit concerned that some people are getting into rough play with her - they jump on her back or grab her dorsal fin.

"She can play rough right back - she's a big, powerful animal, she probably weighs 150 kilograms. She could damage someone."

Smith said Moko appeared to be well-fed and healthy, despite all the human attention. (dpa)