A photo of a dead swan surrounded by litter in the Grand Canal has received a huge reaction.

Graham Prole, Youth Swan Project Co-ordinator with the Irish Midlands Ringing Group, says that although the swan's cause of death has yet to be confirmed, it's "very possible" that it is a pollution issue.

The swan was only four years old and had just been entering breeding season, and Graham says its death is very disappointing.

Environmental journalist John Gibbons says, "About a million sea birds annually are killed as a direct result of marine litter. They're not in a position to differentiate between floating, or semi-floating, marine litter and the food that they would normally scavenge for."

"The inland waterways are absolutely destroyed, especially in urban areas, by careless disposal of litter."