the first french antarctic research station was at port martin, east of d'urville. it was destroyed by fire on january 23, 1952. in 1952, a small base called base marret, was built on île des pétrels to study a rookery of emperor penguins. when the port martin station was destroyed, base marret was used in the winter of 1952/1953. a new main base, dumont d'urville station, was built on the same island and opened on january 12, 1956. this became the centre for french scientific research during the antarctic international geophysical year 1957/1958. it has remained in active use ever since.