this was removed belonging to france it has a big natural resource in fish due to be a continental shelf larger than greenland size estimates of biomass and abundance were produced for eight commercial species the total biomass was tonnes and patagonian toothfish dissostichus eleginoides accounted for half of the value tonnes the fish biomass was distributed between the shelf and the deep sea however this evaluation remains incomplete the continental shelf teem with life because of the sunlight available in shallow waters in contrast to the biotic desert of the oceans' abyssal plain the pelagic water column environment of the continental shelf constitutes the neritic zone and the benthic sea floor province of the shelf is the sublittoral zone pinet most commercial exploitation from the sea such as metallic ore non metallic ore and hydrocarbon extraction takes place on the continental shelf sovereign rights over their continental shelves up to a depth of metres or to a distance where the depth of waters admitted of resource exploitation were claimed by the marine nations that signed the convention on the continental shelf drawn up by the un's international law commission in this was partly superseded by the united nations convention on the law of the sea which created the nautical mile exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf rights for states with physical continental shelves that extend beyond that distance france extend its jurisdiction over square kilometers of the neighboring continental shelf from the land area of resulting in square kilometers there are besides some fishing boats and vessels owned by fishermen on r union island a department of france approximately km miles to the north who are licensed to fish within the archipelago's exclusive economic zone govern of france principal activities on the kerguelen islands focus mostly on scientific research earth sciences and biology the so called kerguelen microcontinent or kerguelen plateau include charcoal and conglomerate fragments of gneiss indicate that much of the plateau was above sea level an covered by dense conifer forest tt sanks million years ago and is now below sea level it has sedimentary rocks similar to the ones found in australia and india suggesting it was gondwanan origen the former sounding rocket range to the east of port aux fran ais is currently the site of a superdarn radar since the french centre national d' tudes spatiales cnes has operated a satellite and rocket tracking station which is located four kilometers east of port aux fran ais there was a need for a tracking station in the southern hemisphere and the french government required that it be located on french territory rather than in a populated foreign place like australia or new zealand in the photo you can see that the continental shelf is big the economic importance is referenced but nadietalent reverted too another page related with a flooded laurel forest in ghana with economic value i prefer not do a war with a person