YOUTH : DANA POINT : Summer Camp Has Salty Smell of the Sea

In Dana Point Harbor, camp is not that traditional summer experience for children involving campfires, bunk beds and sack races.

At the Orange County Marine Institute in the harbor, youth activities are more centered around tide pool explorations, marine research boats and learning to ride the waves on a boogie board.

During the weeklong day camps, “we try to teach an awareness and appreciation of marine environments,” said Harry Helling, institute associate director. “We don’t just teach rules, we show children how things work so they have a real understanding of what the ocean is about.”

One example is the institute’s Traveling Sea Adventure Camp, where campers aged 10 to 13 visit tide pools, take a voyage on the institute’s floating sea laboratory and learn how to snorkel and boogie board.

Before any youth grabs a boogie board, camp counselors have already brought the group to the institute’s wave tanks.

“We teach them about the movement of waves and sand,” said Helling, who heads the institute’s educational programs. “They learn why waves move like they do. We try to give them a real, hands-on understanding of marine environment.”

It isn’t all classroom-type activity at the traveling sea camp. The five-day session includes three days on the beach and an excursion to Sea World in San Diego.

The institute’s youth program has camps for children starting at age 3.

Mommy and Me and the Sea for 3- and 4-year-olds uses play-acting and storytelling to teach preschoolers and their parents about the ocean.

The highlight of the weeklong program is a sea theater that uses a painted tide pool backdrop with cutouts. Children paint their hands like hermit crabs or octopuses and wave them rhythmically through the holes to music from the movie “The Little Mermaid.”

“We teach through art and literature,” Helling said. “The program has turned into Daddy and Me and the Sea because so many fathers have signed up, too.”

Other sea camps for ages 5 to 7 and 8 to 10 are available. The full day camps cost approximately $140 to $150. The Mommy and Me program runs 90 minutes each day and costs $42.

Space is limited for all camps. For information, call (714) 496-2274.