More than 3,100 volunteers picked up litter and debris along shorelines, rivers and lakes during the 21st Annual Coastal Cleanup on Sept. 20.

Volunteers cleaned up 28 sites and approximately 119 miles and 113 acres throughout Hillsborough County and collected an estimated 51,945 pounds of trash. Check-in for the event began at 8 a.m., and the cleanup took place from 8:30 a.m. to noon. In addition, several of Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful's Adopt-A-Road groups took to the streets to pick up litter and prevent it from getting in the waterways.

"We had great weather this year, and I would like to thank all our volunteers who instead of going to the beach helped clean it up instead," said KHCB Executive Director Christine Commerce. "We could not have done it without them or the support of our sponsors."

Among the more unusual items volunteers found were a brick chimney top, live hamster, luggage, goat skull, shower mat, television, pool table, construction barricades, piano keyboard, bed pan and fuzzy dice.

Volunteers also found some unfortunate casualties due to people's carelessness. One bird was found entangled in rope at Heather Lakes Park in Brandon and another was found at Egmont Key. Along the Courtney Campbell Causeway, volunteers found three crabs that had been trapped in bottles. A live hamster also was found in a box at the Apollo Beach Nature Preserve.

Lutz boasted the highest turnout with 582 volunteers in conjunction with the Lutz Trash Bash. The highest volume of trash came from the Courtney Campbell Causeway, where 587 volunteers collected an estimated 8,865 pounds of trash.

High school and middle school students, Boy and Girl Scout Troops, businesses, families, and more were among the volunteers at the cleanup. Many students took advantage of the volunteer opportunity to earn some community service hours or extra credit.

In addition to collecting trash, volunteers marked their finds .. cards, which are

used to track the types of debris that are found and their sources to better educate the public.

                The International Coastal Cleanup has grown into a worldwide event, coordinated by The Ocean Conservancy. Last year, 378,000 volunteers from 76 countries and 45 states cleared six million pounds of trash from oceans and waterways and recorded every piece of trash collected.

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful coordinates the Coastal Cleanup on a local level. Last year, 3,455 KHCB volunteers cleaned 107 miles of shorelines and roadways collecting 67,782 pounds of trash in Hillsborough County.

This event was sponsored locally by: Biological Research Associates, Borrell Electric Co., Cargill, FRS Environmental Remediation, Inc. D/B/A The FGS Group, Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, Hillsborough County Solid Waste Management Dept., Pollo Tropical, Tampa Bay Parrot Head Club, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, TECO Energy, Ocean Conservancy, Vulcan Materials, USAA and Wheelabrator McKay Bay.

In-Kind Sponsors included: 97X, Coca-Cola, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin Donuts, EVOS, News Channel 8 On Your Side, Publix Super Markets, Inc., The Florida Aquarium and The Tampa Tribune.

National Sponsors include The Coca-Cola Company and Bank of America, among others.