China recruits 500 fishing ships to fight Dalian slick

China has recruited a flotilla of 500 fishing boats to help clean up an oil slick that shut one of its biggest ports, Dalian, disrupting refinery operations and diverting cargoes elsewhere, but officials said the port would not return to normal until the end of the week. A pipeline explosion and fire hit the Xingang port, home to a 19 million barrel strategic petroleum reserve, during a tanker offloading last Friday, spilling 1,500 tonnes of crude into the sea to leave a slick covering 183 sq km (71 sq miles).