Beach cleanups and storms have revealed everything from creepy dolls and dentures to household appliances and decades-old artifacts along the New Jersey coastline.
Asbury Park, NJ – Visitors walking the beaches of the Jersey Shore occasionally stumble across more than seashells and driftwood. Over the years, volunteers and beachgoers have discovered a bizarre collection of items ranging from voodoo dolls and dentures to household appliances and vintage toys.
Environmental groups say these discoveries highlight both the strange journey of ocean debris and the growing problem of pollution along the coastline.
Key Points
• Volunteers and beachgoers have found bizarre items including voodoo dolls, dentures, and toys
• Storms like Hurricane Sandy have uncovered historic artifacts and personal belongings
• Plastic debris remains the most common pollution found on New Jersey beaches
Odd discoveries surprise beachgoers
Some of the strangest items reported along the Jersey Shore include a voodoo doll, a severed Barbie head, and even a Baby Yoda doll washed up in the sand. Volunteers have also reported finding dentures, a prosthetic leg, and a plastic spider during organized beach cleanups.
Other discoveries are simply puzzling. A 50-pound bag of rice, a whoopie cushion, and a jar of homemade alcohol described as “hooch” have all turned up on local beaches.
Household items occasionally appear as well, including a small refrigerator, a toaster, an area rug, and even a full-length mirror. Larger debris such as car bumpers, gutters, and kitchen sinks have also washed ashore after storms.
Storms reveal historic and unusual items
Major coastal storms often uncover older objects buried beneath the sand for decades. After Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey in 2012, beachgoers discovered a bundle of love letters dating back to the 1940s.
Other unusual finds have included a stash of Prohibition-era whiskey bottles and a small dinosaur toy believed to date back to the 1960s. A Philadelphia Eagles banner and a second-place trophy have also been recovered along the shoreline.
These items often travel long distances through ocean currents before eventually landing on the sand.
Plastic pollution dominates beach debris
Despite the unusual discoveries, environmental groups say the vast majority of items collected during beach sweeps are everyday trash. Clean Ocean Action volunteers reported removing more than 176,000 pieces of debris from New Jersey beaches during 2023 cleanup events.
Plastic makes up more than 70 percent of the material collected. Broken plastic fragments, bottle caps, food wrappers, straws, and cigarette filters consistently rank among the most common items found.
Volunteers have also reported increasing amounts of personal items in recent years. Disposable masks, gloves, vape cartridges, dog waste bags, and dental floss picks frequently appear in cleanup reports.
While strange objects often attract attention, environmental advocates say the more common plastic debris poses the biggest long-term threat to marine life and coastal ecosystems.