The islands are supplied by by the special ship Marion Dufresne
sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island.
Terre Adélie is supplied by the Astrolabe
sailing out of Hobart
in Tasmania.
Perhaps surprisingly, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands do generate an income for France of about 16 million Euro per year. This income comes almost exclusively from fisheries that harvest spiny lobster
and the Patagonian toothfish.
Both species are subject to poaching by foreign fleets so the French Navy occasionally monitors the surrounding waters and either fines or confiscates the offending vessels. France used to sell licenses to foreign fleets for the fishing rights to the Patagonian toothfish but as the population has fallen to endangered levels, this is no longer done.
These are extremely isolated territories and mostly of little use to France and yet the claims and the presence continue, perhaps for reasons mostly of pride as well as for the minimally lucrative exclusive economic zones surrounding the islands. Regardless, these are not islands or lands most anyone will ever see and no one can really be blamed for having no idea where they are. But for the lucky readers of this blog, you now know more than most. Enjoy the knowledge.
As far as the flag goes,
it is unofficial, as is true of the flags of all of the constituent lands of Overseas France. Unlike British Overseas Possessions which have official flags, the official flag of all of Overseas France is the tricolor of Metropolitan France.
The logo on the flag does make sense once you know a bit more about the territory. The five stars represent the five general areas that make up the territory as explicated above. The lettering refers to the French name for the territory which is Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, or TAAF. These letters are stylistically reproduced on the flag in the lower right of the blue field.
Having taken an electronic voyage to the mostly unreachable and mostly unheard of extremes of Overseas France, in our next post we return to a much better known, much more accessible, and much more inhabitable location, so stay tuned.