At our place There is a huge community of turtles in the Bat Galim reef.Some are local and some come and go according to the seasons. I'm still researching the issue of who is local and who is a casual tourist.
The turtle Babu before the injury ► Watch
Babu's story, after I met him again on Monday 26/5/25, it was time to share his story.
In November 2024, my friend Ayelet and I met a friendly and familiar brown turtle that we named Babu, a turtle that I first documented in November 2022 (unless I find it earlier in the archive that is still awaiting sorting).
When we met him in November 2024, we noticed that he had a tag on his left hind fin, a marking from a turtle that had come out of the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Makhmoret. This was really strange because in his first recordings in 2022 he didn't have a tag and suddenly he does.
So we took a picture of the tag and took it to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center for clarification, very curious to hear his story. At first it was a mystery for a while because the last digit of the tag was unclear and almost impossible to decipher until I edited it in Photoshop and we clearly discovered that the digit was 3. After a while, we received the full story of the turtle we named Babu.
The story of the Sea Turtle Rescue Center:
"Babu is actually Meir, a brown sea turtle. He arrived in November 2022 from Bat Galim after being accidentally hit by a fishing hook. The sea turtle was named after the fisherman Meir, who reported him. He was brought to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Michmoret by Rotem Sade, the inspector of the Marine Unit at the Nature and Parks Authority.
Meir weighed 37 kg. After a CT scan, fish hooks were discovered and they were successfully removed in surgery by Dr. Tzachi Eisenberg at the "Kol Chai" clinic in Rehovot. Meir completed a 168-day rehabilitation process. He gained a weight of 42 kg. He received a left rear marking tag - 1203.
Meir was released in May 2023 on Betzet Beach in collaboration with two classes from schools in the area, during a beach cleanup activity on Good Deeds Day, volunteers from the Nature and Parks Authority, and inspectors from the Marine Unit at the Nature and Parks Authority, Shai Cabasa and Ziv Nader.
Recently, a brown sea turtle that was considered a permanent resident of the area and was named "Babu" was photographed by the marine community in Bat Galim, with a tag with an unclear number on its left hind leg. After decoding the photographs, the number 1203 was discovered and its identity was confirmed after checking the database of the Sea Turtle Rescue Center at the Nature and Parks Authority.
Sea turtle release at Betzet Beach ► Watch
Photo: Shai Cabasa
A crazy story that once again reinforces my mantra that this place must be protected for a long time and in the future will be a marine reserve. You realize that it was released on Betzet Beach and returned to us on the Bat Galim reef, it's amazing! There is nothing about Bat Galim, the marine pearl of Haifa.
Meeting with the turtle Babu ► Watch
Photo: Tal Raz.
So what do you think it should be called?
Meir or Babu? Or Meir-Babu? Maybe Babu-Meir?
