Seagulls circle above cat swimming in sea half mile off Turkish coast

Turkish cat rescued at sea
How this cat ended up in the sea hundreds of yards off the coast in an area called the Golden Horn, Turkey is anyone’s guess. The Golden Horn is an inlet near Istanbul. The cat was swimming strongly towards the shore but seagulls were circling above. A marine cleaning crew first tried to rescue the cat with a net but the cat refused to cooperate. The cat turned towards the boat clearly understanding that it offered a way out. The crew then used a device on the ship which is designed to remove waste from the sea. You’ll see the cat scamper up a conveyor belt.
My wild guess is that the cat was thrown from a boat into the sea and the cat was swimming to shore at the time although you can see from the video that the shore was over half a mile away. Cats are excellent swimmers. And they are great survivors. This cat would have made it to the shore but it is nice to see him/her rescued. Although personally I would not have found it amusing that the cat objected to being scooped up into the net.
The cat would be a standard random bred cat. It looks like he is a what I call a ‘Van cat’ – a random bred cat with Turkish Van markings.