Great Bay, St. Martin (GIS) ( Thursday, February 8, 2007) – “It is a great improvement to the village and I think the fishermen will enjoy this location,” said Ben Vlaun, advisor to the fishermen of Simpson, about the new Simpson Bay Fish Market due to be completed this month. “This will encourage more people to participate in fishing,” he added.

The Government Information Service, GIS, will feature interviews with some of the fishermen of this unique fishing village in its bulletin to be aired today at 7:00pm on Cable TV Channel 15.

In excerpts of the interviews released by GIS, Paul Peterson, who like many, comes from a family of fishermen, and has been fishing all his life, said about the new facility: “we the fishermen will enjoy it and have the benefits of it. It will be a beautiful facility. Where we use to sell the fish before were small areas now this is a beautiful, luxurious place.”

Another life-long fisherman, Bernard Halley, commenting on the new Fish Market, said, “It’s looking good. And I hope it will benefit the fishermen from Simpson Bay and not the outsiders.”

He continued: “Right now at the present fish market people are bringing in fish from all over the place so I hope that it will benefit the fishermen from Simpson Bay, the local fishermen, the fishermen from St. Maarten.”

Claudius Halley, sharing similar sentiments, however added another concern: that of lost fishing traps in the lagoon.

This has been brought to the attention of leader of Government, Sarah Wescot – Williams. She promised during a recent visit to the site, that this and other concerns such as the lack of parking, and the lack of off-loading space, “will be looked into to see what possibilities are available for improvement and alleviation”.