China recruits 800 fishing boats to disperse Yellow Sea oil slick

The flotilla will join the 24 specialist ships that have been spraying dispersal agents and soaking up crude
Oil spill washes ashore in the port of Dalian, China
Oil washes ashore in the port of Dalian, China, 20 July 2010. Photograph: Jiang He/Greenpeace /EPA

Chinese authorities stepped up their efforts to disperse a major oil slick in the Yellow Sea yesterday by mobilising 800 fishing boats to help the clean-up operation.

The flotilla will join the 24 specialist ships that have been spraying dispersal agents, soaking up crude with panels of absorbent felt and using a floating barrage to prevent the slick from contaminating the beaches near Dalian.

Investigators have also launched a probe into the pipeline explosion that caused the seepage on Friday night and has subsequently forced the authorities to restrict access to Dalian Xingang oil terminal.

A 300,000-tonne crude oil tanker, owned by Singapore Pacific Petroleum which was unloading its cargo at the time of the accident, has been held for checks.

The domestic media said there have been safety concerns at the port for some time.

An environmental protection bureau study on the petrochemical industry in 2006 identified five projects at the Dalian Xingang Port as potential risks, according to Global Times.

Economic activity in the north-eastern port has been seriously disrupted. Six "very large crude carriers", with about 12m barrels of oil, were expected to be diverted, possibly to South Korea or other terminals in China with the capacity for such large vessels. Ships carrying imported corn have also been forced to dock elsewhere.

Thousands of firefighters have doused the flames and port engineers have staunched the leak, but the clean-up mission will take at least four more days, according to the domestic media.

Officials said the dispersal operation was making progress despite rough seas. Considerably smaller in scale than the BP leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the slick has reportedly shrunk by more than a third from its peak of 50 square kilometres.

But local reporters said the crude was evident on nearby beaches, where patches of sand and rocks were coated in a layer of oil.

The leak is likely to add to persistent calls for tighter environmental regulation in China. The need for improved standards was also highlighted by a toxic spill from a copper mine in Fujian month that poisoned a major river, killed countless fish and threatened the drinking supplies of downstream communities.

The director of the Environmental Inspection Office, Zou Zhimin, told the local media that the state council - China's cabinet - have arranged inspections of safety standards at petrochemical sites across the country."