SINGAPORE — Mexican restaurant and bar chain Chimichanga may be known for its hearty tacos, quesadillas and the likes, but come next Sunday (Nov 26), its patrons will show up not just for margaritas, but to also raise funds to save marine life in Bali’s Batu Niti that is entrapped by discarded fishing nets.

The fundraiser, titled The Net(work) Party: Untangling the Ocean, will be held at the restaurant-bar’s outlet Chimi’s Marina Bay between 3pm and 7pm.

The idea was sparked when a regular customer Gopaal G Jeyaram struck up a conversation with the crew at Chimichanga’s Little India outlet on Dunlop Street some time at the end of July or early August.

The 44-year-old technical dive instructor and founder of technical dive centre Big Fins (Bali) was trying to raise money to remove ghost nets from the waters of Batu Niti — a dive site off Bali, Indonesia — but had not made much headway.

Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been abandoned, discarded or lost at sea.

Mr Gopaal told TODAY that he was at Batu Niti in May or June this year when he chanced upon ghost nets in the waters. 

“We were diving at Batu Niti, a beautiful dive site, and we dropped to 60 metres. As we turned round the reef, all of a sudden I saw this horrendous net that was choking the life out of the reefs.”

While he had dived at the site many times before, this was the first time that he had encountered such ghost nets, Mr Gopaal said, adding that it was “painful to watch”.

“But what got us absolutely motivated (to take action) was, as we were diving down at the 60m mark along the reef, we saw a mola mola.”

A mola mola, also known as an ocean sunfish, is the largest bony fish in the world. It can weigh up to 2,200kg, and grow to sizes of around 4m wide and 3m tall, the National Geographic website reported.

It was the first time Mr Gopaal had seen the “gigantic and beautiful” mola mola up close underwater, and he said that all he could think of for the rest of the dive was the possibility of the ghost net entrapping the marine creature.

“The first thing (my fellow divers and I) said to each other coming out of the water was, ‘We have to do something about this’.” 

Since then, Mr Gopaal and a team of volunteers have been returning to the dive site to begin work on removing these ghost nets.

And while the expedition had started off as one focused on removing the net 60m below the ocean’s surface, the team chanced upon more discarded nets at varying depths, while conducting their recce dives and surveys.

Due to the sheer scale of the removal works, Mr Gopaal turned to the diving community to get help. At least 20 divers have since signed up to be volunteers for the project.

The team of 20 consists mainly of diving instructors based in Bali. Of these, three — including himself — are Singaporeans, while the rest are from different countries including France, Germany, Indonesia and the Netherlands.

The group would be deployed in smaller teams to remove the ghost nets at different depths.

“It’s an ongoing project. We’ve already started it, and it cannot be done in one day,” Mr Gopaal said.

As of today, the groups have removed about 130kg of ghost nets.

LIMITED MANPOWER, RESOURCES

There are immense challenges as the project continues.

Asked how many more nets they expect to find and remove, Mr Gopaal said that the retrieval will be an “ongoing” and “continuous” effort, given the regular discarding of such drift nets in the ocean.

He added that such nets and plastic rubbish do not necessarily come from the Bali island itself, but could instead be carried in by the currents, from other parts of the world.

“It’s hard for us to predict when these (tides carrying drifting rubbish) are going to happen, but they are going to happen because there are so many fishing boats out there that use trawling nets, nylon nets, rope nets.”

The total size of the ghost nets found so far is about that of a football field, said Mr Gopaal. He believes they are from a single net, based on the material, though they may have been ripped apart by the reef cliff.

They are also located 60m deep in the ocean — otherwise known as being in the mesophotic zone — which has further amplified the difficulty and costs of retrieving them, Mr Gopaal said.

For one thing, divers would require a technical diving certification to dive at such a depth in that zone. Of the current team of 20 volunteers, only three of them — including himself — have such a qualification.

This means that it would take multiple trips for such a small band of divers to completely remove the ghost nets.

“We have very, very limited bottom time (the duration a diver stays underwater). At 60m… usually for our general dive, we don’t spend anything more than 25 minutes. But (it) will take us about two hours to surface,” Mr Gopaal said.

This is because they would also have to make a number of decompression stops while rising from that depth. Decompression stops refer to periods during a diver’s ascent, where he or she must pause and stay at a certain depth, to safely dispel gases absorbed over the course of the dive.

Hence, a longer bottom time would mean more decompression stops, a longer time to surface, plus more substantial training, Mr Gopaal said.

On a recent dive, the team spent 45 minutes underwater removing part of the net at the 60m depth, but it took them 3.5 hours to surface after, he added.

Divers would also require specialised equipment such as rebreathers and a different gas mix for their diving canisters at such a depth.

Rebreathers recycles the gas divers breathe, and could cost between US$10,000 (about S$13,400) and US$20,000 a unit.

“It’s physically taxing and it takes a lot of money every time we go diving," Mr Gopaal said.

He estimated that the equipment used could cost between US$80 and US$100 a person for each dive, and there are other costs such as hiring the boats that carry the team from the island to the dive site.

There is also the concern that it can be too little too late for some coral reefs.

“If we find a ghost net on the reef, and the reef has already eaten up the ghost net — meaning it’s grown around the ghost net because nature tries to fight it — that retrieval is pointless because we will be doing more damage to that reef while we are removing the ghost net.”

GETTING A 'CONTINUOUS FUND' 

Mr Gopaal, who has some experience in media work, and his team of volunteers have been documenting the clean-up efforts.

To film underwater, the team had to get the proper gear to protect the cameras, and each camera housing could cost around US$10,000.

To date, he estimated that they have spent about S$18,000 in total since their first recce dive in August to begin removing the ghost nets — an amount that he has completely funded on his own. 

Asked what the target amount he aims to raise is, Mr Gopaal did not have a specific figure in mind since he foresees it being a “continuous fund”.

He does not expect the costs of the dive trips to be offset by the upcoming fundraiser, but hopes that the event will raise awareness for the cause and, ultimately, “build momentum for a continuous fund” with contributions by individuals and corporations.

Then, dive organisations and volunteers such as himself may tap this fund for future expeditions to remove ghost nets and other rubbish from the ocean.

As part of what attendees to the Nov 26 fundraiser can expect, Mr Gopaal said that a teaser film that lasts 12 to 15 minutes would be showcased at the event. 

This will be a trailer of sorts to the full documentary, which they aim to release in the first quarter of next year.

Separately, Mr Gopaal said that the 130kg of ghost nets retrieved so far were not simply discarded. Instead, they had been repurposed into an artwork, created by an artist living in Bali, which will also be displayed at Chimi’s Marina Bay restaurant on Nov 26.

“To be really honest, it’s a creepy-looking sculpture… but it communicates the message of the damage and death we’ve caused in the reef ecosystem. It’s creepy for a very good reason,” Mr Gopaal added.

Responding to queries from TODAY, Ms Amanda Ng, who is head of marketing and public relations at Chimichanga, said that the business has been involved in past fundraisers with other organisations, but this upcoming one would be the company’s first ocean-focused fundraiser.

“During a casual conversation, (Mr Gopaal) shared the urgency of addressing the ghost nets issue, emphasising the limited time window during the monsoon season.”

The northeast monsoon season in the region starts from November to March. 

“The strategic opening of our VivoCity outlet near the seaside prompted us to consider how we could contribute to marine conservation,” Ms Ng added, referring to the mall situated near Sentosa Island on the southern coastline of Singapore.

“The timing aligned perfectly, inspiring us to rally our community for this meaningful event.”

Every dollar generated from ticket sales to the fundraiser would be channelled directly into funding the mission of removing ghost nets from Batu Niti’s waters. All other aspects of the event including the drinks, food, venue and marketing would be sponsored by Chimichanga, Ms Ng said.

The ticket sales started on Nov 6 and close to 50 tickets have been sold so far, she disclosed.

Each ticket to the fundraiser costs S$85 and will include free-flow wine, beer, spirits and finger food. It can be bought at thenetworkparty.eventbrite.sg.