HARBOR CASH: Dana Point Harbor is one...

HARBOR CASH: Dana Point Harbor is one of the county’s richest sources of funds--nearly $4 million a year--but unfortunately it offers no help for the county’s bankruptcy woes. . . . State law mandates that the money cannot go out of the harbor, even to the county’s general fund, says Robert G. Fisher, the director of the county’s harbors, beaches and parks. “The rules stipulate that the money generated on state tidelands must be used for the benefit of those tidelands,” he says.

NEW CONTRACTS: The county owns the 278-acre harbor and leases to 11 businesses, including developer Don Koll, an owner of the 1,500-slip Dana Point Marina, and Richard Beauchamp, a dentist who owns the 1,000-slip Dana West Marina. With their 30-year leases up in six years, the tenants have begun renegotiating their contracts, although the county has been slow in its discussions. . . . Many of the tenants are eager to see a redesign of the harbor’s parking and commercial areas, but talks have been slowed by the county financial crisis. “We’re waiting for (the county) to say something,” says Morris Harrison, a tenant who owns the Dana Village Co.

TIME CAPSULE: Mark the date Aug. 29, 2016, on your calendar. That’s when a time capsule sealed into a commemorative granite boulder at the east breakwater will be opened. It will mark 50 years after the harbor construction began. . . . The capsule contains “an array of meaningful mementos, documents and pictures. . .a record of coastal life 1966,” according to Dana Point historian Doris Walker, above.

RECORD CROWD: Both the whales and whale watchers have turned out in large numbers this season, the best in 24 years, says Linda Cognito, a spokeswoman for Dana Wharf Sportfishing, which operates 10 boats out of Dana Point Harbor. . . . Cognito says a record 1,858 whale watchers boarded their boats Feb. 18, the second Saturday of the Festival of Whales, which ended Sunday. She cited the festival and the balmy weather as the lure for the watchers. The whales, she says, “are just being very cooperative this year. I can’t say why.”