Dolphin swimming off Rome coast with rubbish bag stuck to fin.

The dramatic image of a dolphin swimming off Rome's coast with a black rubbish bag stuck to its dorsal fin has brought renewed focus on the garbage crisis affecting the Italian capital, as well as the epidemic of plastic floating around the Mediterannean.

The image was taken in recent days off the coast of Ostia by volunteers of the "Sotto al mare" association.

Lisa Stanzani, one of the group's volunteers, is quoted in local media as saying: "The hope is that the animal has managed to get rid of it, or that some other specimen has helped it. But we cannot be sure of it."

The news comes just a few days after the association recovered an abandoned fishing net, floating near a Loggerhead sea turtle - a species in danger of extinction - and a few weeks after a sperm whale and her baby were killed in fishing nets off the island of Ponza.

Photo La Repubblica