Phil Cubbedge
Shellfisherman
Matanzas River Clam Farm
“You've got to know where they grow and where to go at the right time and—there's a lot of knowledge in something like that. People don't realize”
Phil Cubbedge’s family has been a fixture on the Matanzas River for hundreds of years, where they’ve long lived and fished. In the 1960s, his father built and opened one of the earliest commercial oyster houses in St. Augustine. Today Phil owns his own shellfishing company, and fishes on a contract basis for the State of Florida. He has witnessed dramatic change on the Matanzas River during his tenure on the water, from the northward expansion of mangrove habitat, to the formation and closure of new inlets in the river, and the bloom of the destructive crown conch.
