What do Mr. Potato Heads mustache, a baby stroller with a demons head attached, a meat thermometer and a live octopus inside a stereo speaker all have in common?

They were all items collected Saturday in the California Coastal Cleanup Day.

The event, which featured cleanup efforts in 53 of the states 58 counties and focused on picking up trash from the coastal beaches and waterways all the way to Lake Tahoe collected more than 501,748 pounds 251 tons of trash and recyclables. And thats with only 70 percent of the cleanup sites reporting their work.

Coastal Cleanup Day is always an incredible celebration of our coastal and aquatic environments, said Eben Schwartz, Marine Debris Program Manager for the California Coastal Commission, which along with the Ocean Conservancy has presented the event for the past 29 years.

This years celebration included more than 51,000 volunteers with local participants sweeping beaches in drizzly, blustery conditions.

In Santa Barbara County, 952 volunteers netted 2,545 pounds of debris on local beaches and creeks.

Included in the haul this year were Mr. Potato Heads mustache found at Butterfly Beach and an electric popcorn popper discovered at Goleta Beach.

Why would anyone want these things at the beach? Sam Dickinson, Santa Barbara County cleanup coordinator asked incredulously.

Several odd items were found on San Luis Obispo County beaches, as well. More than 1,100 volunteers at 28 sites cleared more than 54 miles of coastline.

Their discoveries included a meat thermometer, the hood of a red pickup, a mattress, a couple pairs of underwear, a machete, several strands of Christmas lights and a message in a bottle. Michael Heater, program coordinator for EcoSLO which organizes the effort, said he hadnt yet heard what was in the note.

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Scouring the California beaches