Visit French Southern and Antarctic Lands

The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, TAAF), in full the Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Territoire des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises) is an overseas territory (French: Territoire d'outre-meror TOM) of France. Visit French Southern and Antarctic Lands 

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It consists of:

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1. Kerguelen Islands (Archipel des Kerguelen), a group of volcanic islandsin the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa, approximately equidistant between Africa, Antarctica and Australia;
2. St. Paul and Amsterdam islands (Îles Saint Paul et Amsterdam), a group to the north of Kerguelen;
3. Crozet Islands (Îles Crozet), a group in the southern Indian Ocean, south of Madagascar;
4. Adélie Land (Terre Adélie), the French claim on the continent ofAntarctica;
5. the Scattered Islands (Îles Éparses), a dispersed group of islands around the coast of Madagascar.
The territory is also called the French Southern Lands (French: Terres australes françaises) or French Southern Territories. The latter excludesAdélie Land and Scattered Islands, where French sovereignty is not widely recognized or disputed by another state. The lands are not connected toFrance Antarctique, a former French colony in Brazil.
The territory has no permanent civilian population. Those resident consist of visiting military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff.
The territory includes Île Amsterdam, Île Saint-Paul, Îles Crozet and Îles Kerguelen in the southern Indian Ocean near 43°S, 67°E, along with Adélie Land, the sector of Antarctica claimed by France, named by the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville after his wife.
Adélie Land (about 432,000 km²) and the islands, totaling 7781 km², have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter (July) to summer (January).
Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul are extinct volcanoes and have been delineated as the Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands ecoregion. The highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Îles Kerguelen at 1850 meters. There are very few airstrips on the islands, only existing on islands with weather stations, and the 1232 kilometers of coastline have no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages.
The islands in the Indian Ocean are supplied by the special ship Marion Dufresne sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island. Terre Adélie is supplied by Astrolabe sailing out of Hobart in Tasmania.
However, the territory has a merchant marine fleet totaling (in 1999) 2,892,911 GRT/5,165,713 tonnes deadweight (DWT), including seven bulk carriers, five cargo ships, ten chemical tankers, nine container ships, six liquefied gas carriers, 24 petroleum tankers, one refrigerated cargo ship, and ten roll-on/roll-off (RORO) carriers. This fleet is maintained as a subset of the French register that allows French-owned ships to operate under more liberal taxation and manning regulations than permissible under the main French register. This register, however, is to vanish,replaced by the International French Register (Registre International Français, RIF).
The territory contains the only land mass that is antipodal to the Contiguous United States. The far northern tip of Îles Kerguelen, near Baie de l'Oiseau (48.669199°S 69.02298°E), is directly opposite the globe to the small area north of US Highway 2 between Chester, Montana, and Rudyard, Montana, and south of the United States-Canada border. Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul lie antipodal to two small areas in south-eastern Colorado, near the cities of Lamar andCheyenne Wells, respectively. Visit French Southern and Antarctic Lands The territory's natural resources are limited to fish and crustaceans. Economic activity is limited to servicing meteorologicaland geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets. Visit French Southern and Antarctic Lands
The main fish resources are Patagonian toothfish and spiny lobster. Both are poached by foreign fleets; because of this, theFrench Navy and occasionally other services patrol the zone and arrest poaching vessels. Such arrests can result in heavy fines and/or the seizure of the ship. Visit French Southern and Antarctic Lands
France used to sell licenses to foreign fisheries to fish the Patagonian toothfish; because of overfishing, it is now restricted to a small number of fisheries from Réunion Island. Visit French Southern and Antarctic Lands
The territory takes in revenues of about €16 million a year.  Visit French Southern and Antarctic Lands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia