Treasures of the Bat Galim Reef – Part One • Watch

(Lives here in the sea) – I haven't written here for a long time, actually since the death of Bertha, the legendary wall builder of the Bat Galim Reef. Her death was a hard blow and the memories of her will stay with us forever. Many articles have been published following her death, and I hope that we will reach the days when the reef will be a marine nature reserve that will protect the many natural treasures that are here.

I will share from the last few months, actually from the beginning of the year until today, the encounters and experiences I have had here, at Bat Galim Reef, encounters with the familiar sea turtles of the home reef, turtles that I have known and documented for almost a decade, it is exciting!

You can see the identity cards I issued to the turtle community in Bat Galim Reef on my website >>> click here.

I will start from January (2025) when I met the largest number of electricians ever in my life.

The marbled electrician belongs to the betta family, cousins ​​of the shark. The electrician is a cartilaginous fish, about 20 cm in diameter, and its name is given to it because of its ability to electrocute its prey with an electric current of 200 volts. In short, it is not recommended to pet it… and in any case, do not touch any wild animal.

There was also an exciting encounter with a giant, broad-toothed shark that floated elegantly, a sea bat, also belonging to the betta family and is a cartilaginous fish and a relative of sharks.

February, the water is still cold but great, I go in with a swimsuit and come out when the cold seeps in. Some days I go in with a 2mm shirt to stay in the water longer.
First of the month, Saturday morning and we met three turtles. The first was an adult brown turtle with a rope wrapped around its neck, it was really sad to see it like that, it looked like a rope from the bottom of a fishing net. Unfortunately there was no way to help it, it just ran away, we were a few hundred meters from the shore and there was no chance of catching it to take it out for treatment. The only positive thing is that it seems to be okay with this sad reality, functioning. A second later we met the green turtle Beatrice and the sharp-nosed Trigon.
Towards the departure we had a turtle delaying departure, it was the brown turtle Leonardo, a real sweetie.

The month of March continues with exciting encounters in the water, encounters with brown turtles, Noah and a few more that I haven't yet identified, an encounter with the green turtle Beatrice. In addition, a full flock of cartilaginous fish came to visit: broad-toothed loggerhead, guitarfish, spotted terns, and gray wrasse. Simply a delight.
The jellyfish have already disappeared from the landscape until further notice.

I also collected a lot of fishing lines, hundreds of meters long, that were left in the water, and one of them had a squid that was the bait, and it was quite shocking to remove it from the hooks it was caught on, so that no turtle would crave the tempting meal and get injured.

Life here underwater is bustling and the experiences are numerous. Bat Galim Reef is Haifa's marine pearl.
In the next article, I will continue to summarize the months of April and May with additional exciting experiences.