The annual event, which took place on Sunday September 21, enjoyed good weather and attracted three times the number of volunteers as the rain-swept 2007 clean-up.
A total of 22 adults and 14 children, many of them members of the town's Horizon Project, took part. Several travelled long distances to do their bit with volunteers from Inverurie and Lumphanan making up the team.
All accessible areas of the beach from below the harbour boat sheds to Cowie were cleared of rubbish and debris.
A total of 3,170 items of litter were recorded - 1,608 of them plastic. Paper accounted for 761 items, including 577 cigarette stubs, along with 98 sanitary items.
Other rubbish found in abundance was plastic carrier bags, drinks bottles and cans (275 altogether), crisp and sweet wrappers, polystyrene containers and cups and plastic bottle caps.
According to MCS, of all the hazardous materials littering the seas today, plastic poses the greatest threat - it causes death and injury to hundreds of thousands of seabirds and other marine animals every year through ingestion (swallowing) and entanglement
Items potentially harmful to human health were also discovered. These included broken glass, a syringe and 12 instances of dog fouling.
The novelty finds of the day were part of a roadway cat's eye, a carpet, a ground sheet, part of an air bed, a golf umbrella and several parts from plastic toys including a dog's head and cowboy legs.
Stonehaven was one of 360 beaches that took part in the survey across the UK. The findings will now be used to support MCS's campaign against plastic litter.
The Kincardine and Mearns ranger David Potter thanked all those who took part and said the beach looked spick and span, for a short time at least.
If you would like to be placed on the volunteer address list please contact the ranger on 01569 768 292.