A Polish artist famed for slipping crochet covers around unlikely objects is in hot water in Mexico for slipping her brightly coloured work around underwater sculptures near Cancun.

Agata Oleksiak, who uses the name Olek, said she intervened at the Cancun Underwater Museum this month to call attention to the dangers facing species such as the whale shark.

But museum director Jaime Gonzalez said she did so without permission, and may herself have damaged marine life growing on the sculptures in an environmentally protected area.

"Believe it or not, there is a lot of marine life growing, encrusted in the sculpture, and we gather that this has killed it," he said.

Gonzalez said prosecutors are preparing to lodge charges against her.

"If they want to sue me, I don't know. I can pay them back with crocheting more underwater sculptures," Oleksiak said. "I don't know why would they sue me, but maybe they're a little bit upset that I did it there.

"But my intentions were positive and that's the most important thing about my work," she said. "I really want to create a positive message."

In the past, Oleksiak has put crochet covers around a bus and a Wall Street statue of a bull.