Add French Southern Lands to geography

[sharpphyl]

Explain what geography needs created.

GADM = https://gadm.org/maps/ATF.html

Country: French Southern Territories First-level sub-divisions: Iles Eparses Iles Saint Paul et Amsterdam Iles Crozet Kerguelen

We have a catalog record from the Kerguelen Islands which is currently associated with Antarctica instead of French Southern Territories.

[dustymc]

Bah, it would be really great to resolve https://github.com/ArctosDB/arctos/issues/5417 before we dig any holes any deeper! I guess I'll add it to AWG agenda because I don't know how else to proceed.

I held my nose and cut us off from comparing notes with any other GADM-users.

arctosprod@arctos>> update temp_geog_create set state_prov=replace(state_prov,'Î','I');
arctosprod@arctos>> update temp_geog_create set state_prov=replace(state_prov,'É','E');

Please let me know if I've mucked that or anything else by filling in source_authority on whatever's correct.

temp_geog_create(10).csv.zip

[Jegelewicz]

comparing notes with any other GADM-users

Do GADM things not have identifiers? Shouldn't comparisons rely on those rather than people's keyboards? Wouldn't

https://gadm.org/maps/ATF/ileseparses.html

be the very best thing for people to use when comparing our GADM to anyone else's Îles Éparses or Iles Eparses?

[sharpphyl]

Note that Wikipedia doesn't have one article for Iles Saint Paul et Amsterdam. They have one article for each island even though they are part of the same administrative unit. I put both links in the "source" field.

temp_geog_create(10).csv

[dustymc]

both links in the "source" field.

That can't work.

We could allow .fr and use https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Eles_Saint-Paul_et_Amsterdam

We already allow .es so https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pablo_y_%C3%81msterdam is acceptable, but super crappy.

Someone could translate the .fr to .en

??

[Jegelewicz]

Is this the Island you are looking for? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_Saint-Paul

[Jegelewicz]

OK - I see now that is only one of the islands in a group that apparently make up this geography?

[Jegelewicz]

I don't speak French and cannot possibly translate reliably. I guess it would take me at least half a day to use Google translate and make the English page - but that really isn't my job?

[dustymc]

don't speak French

It's just Latin with a funny accent, can't be too hard....

Unless someone objects or shows up with a better idea, I'll go with

We could allow .fr and use https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Eles_Saint-Paul_et_Amsterdam

whenever I can find sufficient braincells to rebuild the controls. I suspect that'll be handy elsewhere anyway.

[sharpphyl]

Unless someone objects or shows up with a better idea, I'll go with

We could allow .fr and use https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Eles_Saint-Paul_et_Amsterdam**Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands**

Agreed but if it helps, here's a Google translate of the body copy from the French.

Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands

The islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, formerly the islands of Saint-Paul and New Amsterdam, form a district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands made up of the islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, 91 km apart from each other. This district is located in the southern Indian Ocean at the southwestern end of the Australian plate, approximately 1,325 km north-northeast of the Kerguelen Islands. The population is about twenty-five people in winter and fifty people in summer4.

Geography The two islands are of very different sizes, indeed Amsterdam Island has an area of ​​58 km2 against only 8 km2 for Saint-Paul Island.

Both are currently inactive volcanoes, the emerged part of a narrow continental shelf surrounded by depths of more than 3,000 meters. Amsterdam Island forms an ellipse, the western part of which has collapsed to give way to a 400 meter high cliff. Saint-Paul Island is characterized by a large central crater where the sea has penetrated. The crater opened to the sea during the last eruption in 1792.

The climate is temperate oceanic but very windy. Located above the so-called Antarctic Convergence Zone, the separation of the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, the islands do not experience snow or frost.

No resident population lives on these islands, but a permanent scientific base, the Martin-de-Viviès base, is located in Amsterdam and has been welcoming successive missions since 1949, which have between 23 and 35 people depending on the season. On the other hand, there is no permanent human presence on Saint-Paul Island, which is only visited during brief scientific or ecological expeditions. The island is in fact an integral reserve of biodiversity.

Both islands are protected within the National Nature Reserve of the French Southern Territories. This protection covers both their land areas and their respective territorial waters.

Weather Martin-de-Viviès has a Cfb (oceanic) climate with a heat record of 26.4°C on January 30, 2005 and a cold record of 2°C on July 3, 1975. The average annual temperature is 14.1 °C.

Environment The surrounding waters are rich in fish and lobster (Jasus paulensis). The governor of the TAAF sets each year by decree a very precise quota with fishing zones, techniques, types and quantities of catch for the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone. In 2005, two Reunionese companies had the right to fish, alternately and with a single vessel, in the waters of the two islands.

The natural vegetation of the islands is grassy, ​​more or less dense, the World Wildlife Fund defines this terrestrial ecoregion as the "temperate grasslands of Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands".

Amsterdam Island is the only island in the TAAF where there is a tree species, Phylica arborea, which is more present on the eastern side of the island. The usual fauna of the subantarctic islands of the Indian Ocean are present on the islands. A large population of sea lions (Arctocephalus tropicalis) frequents the coasts of the two islands and breeds there. Many seabirds also come to nest on land, particularly in Amsterdam, an endemic species: the Amsterdam Albatross (Diomedea amsterdamensis).

On both islands, voluntary or accidental introductions of exogenous species (mice, rats, rabbits, cats, cattle) have greatly disturbed the local fauna and flora.

Amsterdam Island Until 2010, there lived a herd of around 600 wild cows in Amsterdam, descended from an attempt to breed in the 19th century and having practically eliminated the only species of tree, Phylica arborea. “On the other hand, the soil of the grazed area is highly degraded, leaving the rock outcropping in places”. From 1987 (when there were 2,000 animals), livestock regulation was introduced (by regular slaughter), and cattle confined to just over 20% of the island by a barbed wire barrier, maintaining the status quo. The area reserved for livestock represented 12 km2 out of the 58 km2 of the island. Thanks to this barrier, the population decline of Phylica arborea has been halted, and the areas it covers are increasing, although they still represent only a very small percentage of the original stand.

In 2010 it was decided to gradually cull the herd and dismantle the barrier, which had become useless. The following year, only one cow remained, having temporarily escaped her fate before being spotted by base personnel. Today, the island is rid of its cattle.

“Other terrestrial mammals have been introduced:

• mice that seem to adopt an exclusively vegetarian diet.
• rats that consume eggs and young chicks in the summer but become vegetarians in the winter.
• cats which feed mainly at the expense of birds, mice and rats.

“Brought to the island in 1977, the rosebill (Estrilda astrild), a passerine bird from Reunion Island, is the only bird introduced from the island”. The bird does not seem to be invasive, and its population remains reasonable.

St. Paul Island In Saint-Paul, a rat population estimated at between 50,000 and 100,000 individuals at the end of the 1990s had considerably reduced the population of seabirds there by attacking their nests. The island was completely deratized in 1999. Since then, the seabird population has been gradually recovering.

History The history of the islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam is linked by their proximity. Amsterdam Island is mentioned in the journal of the Magellan - Elcano expedition sighted on March 18, 1522 by the second leader of the expedition, the Basque of Getaria (Guipuscoa) Juan Sebastián Elcano, during his return trip to Spain from the Philippine Islands.

Saint Paul Island was discovered in 1559 by the Portuguese. The island was mapped, described in detail and painted by members of the crew of the nau São Paulo, among them Father Manuel Álvares and the chemist Henrique Dias. Álvares and Dias correctly calculated the latitude as 38° South. The ship was commanded by Rui Melo da Câmara and was part of the Portuguese India Armada commanded by Jorge de Sousa. In 1599, the geographer Evert Gysberths indicated on a portolan an island at 38°S with the mention “T.q. descrobio o nao S. Paulo” (land discovered by the ship Saint Paul).

The two islands are observed on several occasions, and sometimes confused, by navigators at the beginning of the 17th century. They are located not far from the road between Cape Town and the Sunda Islands, therefore on the old maritime route linking Europe to India. The ships of the V.O.C. had to reconnoitre them before veering north-east towards the Sunda Strait and Batavia. The Dutch governor van Diemen named Amsterdam Island after his ship, Nieuw Amsterdam, in 1633. But it was another Dutchman, the navigator Willem de Vlamingh, in search of a lost ship that in 1696 was the first to land there (as well as a priori on Saint-Paul Island).

A century later, a Dutch navigator, Harwick Claesz de Hillegom, sighted the island, whose latitude he estimated at 38°50'S. Thinking to be the first to discover her, he then gives her the name of his ship, Zeewolf. Admiral d'Entrecasteaux on his way to the Pacific in search of La Pérouse aboard La Recherche and L'Espérance stopped in Amsterdam in 1792. A first survey of the eastern coast was then carried out.

In 1793 an English ship commanded by Lord Macartney on its way to China landed on Saint-Paul Island. There he finds a sailor from Brest abandoned by an American ship. He draws a map of the island but confuses it with Amsterdam Island.

Then the two islands are only frequented by fishermen from Réunion, American or English sea lion or whale hunters and shipwrecked people. In December 1837, Amsterdam and Saint-Paul were visited by the French corvette Héroïne commanded by Jean-Baptiste Cécille.

In 1842, they aroused the interest of the Polish Adam Mierosławski (pl), captain of the Cygne de Granville. Captain Mierosławski graduated as a long-distance captain under the name of his brother Pierre Louis Adam Mierosławski, using the latter's French passport. In 1843, Adam Mierosławski proposed to the governor of Bourbon Island (Reunion), Rear Admiral Bazoche, to take possession of these deserted islands. In the absence of a warship in the harbour, Bazoche called on the three-master L'Olympe, commanded by Martin Dupeyrat. Captain Dupeyrat and his boat will bring Adam Mierosławski back to these islands. Captain Mierosławski is mandated by the governor of Bourbon, by the decree of June 8, 1843, to assume command of these islands as soon as possession is taken in the name of France.

In the meantime, the United Kingdom is contesting this takeover. To avoid problems and in view of the poverty of the two islands, France sends a dispatch to Admiral Bazoche requesting the recall of the garrison. Mierosławski disputes this (he even threatens to raise the Polish flag!). He then began to negotiate with Bazoche, a friend, Adolphe Camin and other interlocutors from Reunion with whom they founded a joint-stock company in 1845 for the exploitation of the two islands and the creation of establishments on the spot. Saint-Paul Island, where a fishery was then installed, had up to 40 inhabitants during the following period, but deprived of its founder and gradually deserted by fishermen, the business was interrupted in 1853.

In January 1871, Reunionese Heurtin and his family landed on Amsterdam Island and attempted cattle breeding and cultivation of the land. It's a fail. They return to Réunion six months later but abandon the cattle which will acclimatize to the island and return to the wild state. In September 1874, a French astronomical mission aboard the ship Le Fernand frequented the two islands. She disembarks on Saint-Paul Island to observe the passage of Venus in front of the sun. The end of the mission took place in January 1875. During this mission, the geologist Charles Vélain landed in Amsterdam and in 1878 published the first geological data of the two islands.

In October 1892, the French warship La Bourdonnais regained possession of the two islands in the name of France. In 1893, another ship, L'Eure, returning from a mission from the Kerguelen Islands, confirmed this taking possession.

In 1924, the islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam were attached to Madagascar, then a French colony. When Madagascar gained independence in 1960, the two islands remained French.

Administration Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands are part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). The TAAF are placed under the authority of the senior administrator who exercises the functions of head of the territory and enjoys the rank of prefect.

The Saint-Paul Islands and Amsterdam are also a district of the TAAF.

In this regard, a district chief is the representative of the prefect of the TAAF, the senior administrator. One of the roles of the district chiefs in the TAAF is to direct the southern and Antarctic bases. In the case of the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands, it is more particularly around the Martin-de-Viviès base located in Amsterdam that the district head exercises his authority.

In addition, Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands, like the other overseas territories, are associated with the European Union as Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).

Finally, the district budget is linked to the general budget of the TAAF which currently represents 26 million euros.

[Jegelewicz]

I'm creating the stub - give me a few.

[Jegelewicz]

OK - it looks like crap but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paul_and_Amsterdam_Islands

[dustymc]

temp_geog_create.10.csv.zip