Canal boat explodes and bursts into flames in Northamptonshire, UK
You don’t need me to remind you of the safety concerns and issues surrounding lithium-ion battery technology. My views are well known! But this is the first instance I am aware of a narrowboat on the UK canal network exploding as a result of this battery technology. Reports suggest that debris was thrown 40ft across the canal and witnesses said the explosion was very loud and shook their boats. Fortunately, there were no injuries. This is yet another wake up call, but sadly, I suspect we will never know what caused the batteries to blow given the total destruction of the boat.
Here’s the story. Firefighters believe that batteries thought to be made up of lithium-ion were the cause of an explosion on a Northamptonshire canal boat.
Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service (NFRS) was called to reports of a canal boat fire following an explosion at Gayton Marina. Crews from Mereway, Moulton and Towcester attended the scene to find a canal boat filled with smoke.
A spokeswoman for NFRS said: “It’s believed batteries thought to be made up of lithium-ion exploded, which then developed a fire within the boat.
“Firefighters used breathing apparatus and hose reel jets to extinguish the flames.
“Cordons were put in place to cover the canal path, due to smoke hazards, and the marina was evacuated.”
US shipping company refuses to carry electric cars on its ships
This story really grabbed my attention. What took them so long, one might ask? After a plethora of serious incidents and accidents involving lithium-ion batteries in recent times – (you may well know of my keen interest in this area) – why has it taken so long for a shipping line to make this, on the face of it, sensible decision? Good question – and will others follow suit, I wonder?
Matson, an American Shipping Company based in Honolulu, Hawaii, has officially refused to accommodate electric cars as part of its cargo, amidst rising concerns over the safety of transporting electric vehicles by sea.
The news broke a few weeks after a cargo ship carrying 3,000 electric cars sank off the Alaska coast after a fire broke out. According to the U.S Coast Guard, electric cars were somewhat responsible for the fire, which led to the sinking of the ship Morning Midas in June.
This incident has led to Matson refusing to transport electric cars on its vessels, a decision that could impact the auto industry. Given its location amidst the Pacific, Matson serves many areas in the Pacific.
Matson cited security reasons for taking this decision following the sinking of the Morning Midas after a fire started on the ship.
27 million tons of toxic nanoplastics floating in Atlantic Ocean
Well, what a shocker this story is. A new study has revealed that there are over 27 million tons of small plastic particles in the North Atlantic Ocean alone! That is such a big number, I can’t even begin to imagine how that would look. As a world we should hang our collective heads in shame.
This new scientific study has revealed that these nanoplastics particles are smaller than 1 micrometer. This is the first time such a large amount of nanoplastics has been estimated in ocean water.
The research was carried out by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) along with Utrecht University, and the findings were published on July 9, 2025, in the journal Nature.
Researchers involved in the study said that this quantity of tiny plastic is actually more than the total amount of visible plastic (microplastics and macroplastics) floating not just in the Atlantic, but in all the world’s oceans combined.
One of the lead scientists from NIOZ, who is also a professor of geochemistry at Utrecht University, said that this estimate helps reveal a major part of the “missing plastic” puzzle- referring to the fact that a large portion of plastic ever produced could never be tracked or found.
A master’s student from Utrecht University, Sophie ten Hietbrink, spent four weeks aboard the research vessel RV Pelagia to collect the data. During the expedition, which sailed from the Azores to the European continental shelf, she collected water samples from 12 different locations. Using filters, anything larger than 1 micrometer was removed from the samples.
Scientists discover “vibrant oasis” of chemical-eating creatures in deep Pacific
Just when we thought we knew it all, along comes another story to challenge our knowledge and thinking. What an extraordinary discovery this is, made deep beneath the ocean waves! And it seems chemical-eating creatures sound as if they might have come out of a sci-fi horror movie!
Scientists diving to astounding depths in two oceanic trenches in the northwest Pacific have discovered thriving communities of marine creatures that get their sustenance not by eating organic matter like most animals but by turning chemicals into energy.
They found these chemosynthesis-based animal communities – dominated by tube worms and clams – during a series of dives aboard a crewed submersible to the bottom of the Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian trenches. These creatures are nourished by fluids rich in hydrogen sulfide and methane seeping from the seafloor in this dark and frigid realm beyond the reach of sunlight.
These ecosystems were discovered at depths greater than the height of Mount Everest, Earth’s tallest peak. The deepest one was 9,533 meters below the ocean surface in the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. This was almost 25 per cent deeper than such animals had previously been documented anywhere.
Scientists say coastal erosion could erase Chilean beaches in a decade
Following on with another rather sad environmental related story of our times, it seems that some of Chile’s beaches may well vanish entirely over the next decade, according to local scientists.
Chile’s central and southern coastlines are facing erosion that could cause at least 10 beaches to disappear within 10 years, according to a team of scientists in the South American country, which stretches for several thousand kilometres along the Pacific Ocean.
“It will be very difficult for these beaches to survive the next 10 years,” said Carolina Martinez, director of the Coastal Observatory at Universidad Catolica.
Her team has tracked erosion on 67 beaches, finding that 86 per cent are steadily shrinking — even during spring and summer, when they typically recover. Ten in particular, which already had high erosion in 2023, have continued to rapidly lose ground, with rates now about twice as high.
She pointed to intense and increasingly frequent swells, along with rising sea levels, sudden downpours, and heat waves, as key factors. Unchecked urbanization and the degradation of river basins that supply sand to the coast have also contributed.
In Puerto Saavedra, in the southern region of Araucania, storm surges have carved sinkholes into roads and cliffs, cutting off access to some communities. The saltwater is damaging forests, too.
“We’re seeing cliffs and sandy shores retreating rapidly,” Martínez said.
The blame game rolls on and on
Perhaps you have noticed, like me, that someone has to be held to blame these days. It is a rather situation, but that’s the name of the game in today’s world. Brand reputation is everything, so someone has to be held accountable, take responsibility and pay the bill ultimately. Perhaps that is right, I am not sure, but who knows where this story will finally end up! What I do know is it will take a considerable amount of time and money to bring the case to a final conclusion to everyone’s satisfaction.
As a federal court in Baltimore continues to hear pre-trial motions and collect evidence for the claims pending related to the containership Dali’s March 2024 incident that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The owner and operator of the vessel are now suing the builders of the ship alleging negligence or gross negligence in the design, construction, and/or manufacture of the critical switchboard, which has become the focal point of the investigations into the cause of the blackout aboard the vessel.
The court filing reveals that a UVR coil for the circuit breaker was not receiving control voltage, and that it was discovered that one of the control signal wires in the UVR control circuit was not securely connected to its terminal block. They go on to say that because the signal wire was not securely connected, the insufficient contact created an open circuit.
The suit alleges the wire was not securely connected because the “labelling band identifying the wire was installed too close to the ferrule crimped on the end of the wire.” It goes on to assert, “As a result of this and other defects, the signal wire could not be inserted fully into the terminal block’s spring clamp gate.”
The law regarding maritime products liability claims, they state, requires that a manufacturer sold or manufactured the product, and it was unreasonably dangerous or was in a defective condition when it left the defendant’s control.
What I find odd is that Dali had been sailing since 2014, but after 11 years at sea, the vessel owners seek to take legal action against the ship’s builders. This is a case to follow with interest!
Survey well.
Mike Schwarz