French Southern Territories
The
French Southern Territories (long name:
Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands,
French:
Territoire des Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises or
TAAF) are antarctic, volcanic islands in the southern
Indian Ocean, south of
Africa and about equidistant between Africa,
Antarctica, and
Australia.\nIt is an overseas territory of
France.
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 the French-claimed sector of Antarctica,
Adélie Land (French
Terre Adélie) , named by French
explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville after his wife.
It has been an overseas territory of
France since
1955, administered from
Paris by High Commissioner of the Republic François Garde (since
May 24,
2000), assisted by Secretary General Jean-Yves Hermoso.
Several countries do not recognize the French claim to "Adelie Land", and France's territorial claim is suspended in accordance with the provisions of the
Antarctic Treaty.
The "Adélie Land" of about 500,000 square kilometers and the islands, totaling 7781 square kilometers, have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter (July) to summer (January). France maintains the
Dumont d'Urville scientific station on Adélie Land".
Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul are extinct volcanoes; the highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Îles Kerguelen at 1850 meters. There are no airstrips on the islands and the 1232 kilometers of coastline have no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages. However, the territory has a merchant marine fleet totaling (in
1999) 2,892,911 GRT/5,165,713 DWT, including seven bulk carriers, five cargo ships, ten chemical tankers, nine container ships, six liquified gas carriers, 24 petroleum tankers, one refrigerated cargo ship, and ten roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) carriers. This fleet is maintained as a subset of the French register that allowing French-owned ships to operate under more liberal taxation and manning regulations than permissible under the main French register.
The territory's natural resources are limited to fish and
crayfish; economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets. The fish catches landed on Îles Kerguelen by foreign ships are exported to
France and
Réunion. The territory takes in revenues of about $18 million a year. The territory's data code is FS and its
ISO 3166-1 country code (top level
Internet domain) is TF.
See also:
Administrative divisions of France
External links
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