Outdoors Column | Local man loves to dive deep into the Gulf of Mexico for his fish
Danyar Khaiboullin fell in love with being underwater more than 10 years ago.
“I grew up here, these are my home waters,” the Anna Maria Island resident said. “This is where I learned the basics and since then I’ve dived everywhere from Louisiana to Key West and up to Virginia.”
But the Gulf of Mexico remains his home, spending most of his free time chasing grouper and snapper around shallow water structures. His proficiency for spearfishing has led him on commercial diving trips where he’s shot some of the biggest fish in the Gulf.
“One-hundred-fifty-pound grouper, 100-pound amberjack, huge cubera snapper and more. But these days I’m not really looking to get down and slaughter fish. I actually prefer smaller fish like mangrove snapper that I’ll cook whole.”
On a slick calm April day Khaiboullin and friend Laszlo Tengerdy ventured into the Gulf of Mexico on a unique pair of vessels. They each rode a jet-ski 10-miles offshore, allowing them to free dive multiple spots and find some new ones. Small vessels provided a unique experience, one both prepared for with extra safety measures.
“The weather has to be perfect to pull it off, or you’re walking real crooked the next day with back pain. We had an EPIRB and with two jet-skis could tow each other home if needed. There were coolers for fish and room for all our gear,” described Khaiboullin.
“When we pushed out from Longboat it was absolutely flat. In 50-feet of water it was some of the cleanest water I’ve ever seen off this area, just spotting new spots from the surface. I’d drive around and say ‘There’s a new spot,’ then easily hop off the to look in and see what was down there. It was so convenient getting on and off the jet-ski to just check stuff out.”
Without scuba gear Khaiboullin has become an extremely proficient free diver. He’s been timed with static breath holds of 6-minutes and can get 3-minutes of active time underwater. Without scuba gear he’s been to depths of 150-feet and has aspirations to reach 200-feet!
“Since we were bouncing around I’d go down for a minute or two and look around, shoot a fish and come up. If I’m down for 3-minutes I have to take a while to recover so it’s easier to keep them shorter and do more.”
By the end of the trip, each diver had a limit of mangrove snapper while combining for five hogfish, a red grouper and triggerfish as well.
“It’s more sustainable to take a few smaller fish and leave the breeding fish. We saw a lot of gag grouper but their season is closed. Being underwater I see some of the species of fish that are mismanaged like red snapper and amberjack, there’s no stopping them, and they should have much longer seasons,” Khaiboullin explained.
“But red grouper and hogfish should probably have lowered limits to give them some time to rebuild.”
Khaiboullin has turned his love for diving into teaching. He now hosts private classes where people can learn what it takes to be a 100-foot+ freediver.
“People don’t know what their bodies are capable of. I help them learn it.”
He can be reached at danyardiving@gmail.com or through Instagram @danyar_diving, where his jet-ski trip video is also located.