BERLIN (AP) — Wolfgang Gerhardt, a politician who led Germany's pro-business Free Democrats from 1995 to 2001, died on Friday at the age of 80.
Gerhardt's death was announced by Christian Lindner, the current head of the Free Democrats, a small party that has been a coalition partner in several German governments, including the current three-party coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in which he served as finance minister.
Gerhardt was party chairman from 1995 to 2001 and chairman of its group in parliament from 1998 to 2006.
“He was never a power politician, but remained a well-read, fine and generous person even in top positions," Lindner said in tribute.
He credited Gerhardt with holding the party together through a difficult phase in its history.
"We owe him a great deal of gratitude,” he said.
FILE - The former federal chairman of the FDP, Wolfgang Gerhardt, addresses the delegates at the FDP state party conference in Hesse, Germany, on June 19, 2010. (Uwe Zucchi/dpa via AP, File)
FILE - FDP politician Wolfgang Gerhardt, then Chairman of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation is pictured in Berlin, on Nov. 15, 2009. (Karlheinz Schindler/dpa via AP, File)
SEATTLE (AP) — It's a good thing seals aren't on a humpback whale's menu.
A photograph by a whale-watching naturalist captured a seemingly bewildered seal in the mouth of a humpback whale after the giant marine mammal accidentally gulped it last Thursday in the waters off Anacortes, Washington.
The food mix-up began while a Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildfire Tours boat spotted birds flying over a school of fish and a humpback whale swimming toward it, Captain Tyler McKeen said. He said the humpback then used a lunging feeding technique, where the whale opens its mouth wide and takes in small fish and water. But instead of remaining underwater afterward to filter through its baleen, it surfaced and began opening and closing its mouth.
After the whale went back underwater, photographs and videos were checked by whale watchers.
“It only took a couple seconds for everybody to pull up the frames and zoom in,” McKeen said. “That’s when we saw the seal. It was a funny, funny moment for everybody. I mean, it probably wasn’t that funny for the seal.”
A photograph by Brooke Casanova shows the seal, which presumably was also hunting the fish, emerging from the bottom of the whale's mouth. McKeen recorded a phone video where the seal is getting flushed out.
“I’m guessing that this situation probably happens every once in a while just because there’s lots of other stuff that eat these fish too,” McKeen said.
Humpback whales visit the Salish Sea, the inland waters between British Columbia and Washington state, during their migrations. Humpback whales were hunted to local extinction in these waters, but over the last 25 years, their numbers have recovered and are now routinely seen in whale-watching tours, McKeen said.
He added the whale that accidentally gulped the seal is known as “Big Mama" because she has been seen with seven different calves over the years.
This photo provided by Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildfire Tours shows a seal in the mouth of a humpback whale on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in the waters off of Anacortes, Wash. (Brooke Casanova/Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildfire Tours via AP)
This photo provided by Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildfire Tours shows a seal in the mouth of a humpback whale on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in the waters off of Anacortes, Wash. (Brooke Casanova/Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildfire Tours via AP)
