Kerguelen Islands

Made a National Nature Reserve by France in 2006 — the largest nature reserve in the whole of French territory, mainland included — the Kerguelen Islands were christened the Desolation Islands by the man who found them, the French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec, after sighting them in 1772 without ever landing, struck by how inhospitable they looked. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019 as part of the French Austral Lands and Seas, and the permanent scientific base at Port-aux-Français, active since 1951, supports continuous research programmes on southern elephant seals and several penguin species.