A man's wife is wanting to warn others about seals along beaches around this time of year, after he was bit on the leg while walking along the beach near the Papamoa Surf Club.

On Sunday, he was walking along the shoreline, had his head down and was looking at the shells that had been washed up with the last tide, says his wife.

'This would have been about 8am, so the tide would only have turned about an hour before, so it was still reasonably high up the beach.

'The beach has various bits and pieces of drift wood scattered along it and he didn't take any notice of the piece of ‘wood' ahead of him. He didn't really see it as he had his head down.

'All of a sudden, something reared up and nipped his left calf.”

She says the wound is now covered by a nurse's dressing but it was quite long and was about 20cm in a half moon shape, as if a tooth had gone to bite into the leg, but as he stepped back, the mouth scraped along the skin, rather than take an actual bite.

Her husband is nearly 80 and has fragile skin. His skin has peeled back to the length of around 20cm and has made quite a mess at the middle part.

She says it's jagged broken skin, rather than an actual deep bite.

'As he walked off the beach, an older guy asked what happened and that was when he was told never get between the sea and a seal, always walk on the land side of them.”

She says she wants to share this story as she wishes to make others aware of the dangers of these cute looking animals, should they decide to come ashore.

'They can move very fast, which you don't expect from such a ‘lumbering' creature.”