Black oil is washing ashore, at least one person drowned in the viscous oil slick, and efforts to clean up the mess are floundering.

That might sound like the Gulf of Mexico, but it is actually happening along the coast of Dalian, where China is grappling with its largest reported oil spill in recent memory. China’s rapid economic growth has come at great environmental cost, but this appears to be the first time that oil has caused so much natural damage. The leak may have been stopped, but the bad news is still flowing furiously: the slick has grown to 430 sq km, doubling in size since earlier this week, and has claimed at least one human life.

The government’s clean-up efforts have been energetic but – just as in the Mexican gulf – hampered by poor equipment and preparation. Some 40 skimming vessels, 15km of boom and 23 tons of oil-eating bacteria are being used to disperse and remove the oil, according to state media. CNPC, which co-owns the damaged pipelines along with Dalian Port, has also been involved in clean-up efforts.

Authorities have gathered more than 800 local fishing boats and a legion of fishermen to help skim oil manually from the ocean’s surface. “Some of them just use their two hands to gather the oil, or use plastic buckets,” said Zhong Yu, senior action co-ordinator for Greenpeace who has been observing clean-up efforts since early this week. She estimates that a fishing boat with three fishermen can collect 150kg of oil a day.

Some officials complain about a lack of equipment. “We don’t have proper oil clean-up materials, so our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks,” a civil servant told the Beijing Youth Daily.

Chinese officials are trying to secure more oil- absorbing materials from Hong Kong, according to Albert Kwong, chief operating officer of PetroAsian, the Hong Kong-based consultancy. Industry observers say the incident is likely to prompt more stringent regulation of refineries and possibly requirements for more frequent equipment upgrades. “If there was any doubt that [China] would look at their operations more closely after what happened in the Gulf of Mexico, well, this focuses the mind a little bit,” said David Johnson, head of oil and gas research in Asia for RBS.

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, China’s offshore oil company checked its offshore rigs and upgraded the blow-out preventer on its deepwater rig. There was no indication that China’s oil and gas industry or regulators were doing the kind of soul-searching that is happening in the US – but this accident could change that.

China has been aggressively expanding its refining capacity, which has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, and the Dalian refinery is one of the largest in the country. Dalian Port and PetroChina are also developing a liquefied natural gas processing plant.

China’s state-censored media have largely focused on positive stories about the spill clean-up. Nightly news features on-site interviews with sooty firefighters or earnest local officials. Environmentalists say the long-term impact of the spill is being ignored.

“Chinese media should pay more attention to the pollution that the accident has created, as well as the water quality, the marine biology and the impact on people’s livelihoods,” said Ms Zhong of Greenpeace.

The Dalian spill does have its version of the brown pelican however – a man being carried out of the oil slick completely covered in oil. One rescue worker drowned in the course of rescue efforts, and at least two others only just escaped fatal injury.

The disaster began last Friday evening, when two pipelines exploded as high-sulphur crude was being unloaded from a foreign tanker. State media say fire-fighters were on the scene within three minutes and more than 2,000 firefighters were deployed to battle the blaze, which raged through Saturday morning.

China has been slow to say who was responsible for the accident. The Ministry of Transport said the initial explosion occurred as a chemical catalyst was added to the oil, without saying who was at fault. A government investigation has not yet said what caused the explosion.

“The cause of the accident is under investigation and the magnitude of the damages and losses ... remain to be further assessed,” Dalian Port said.

“CNPC has been cleaning up the spill with all its strength, and the ocean surface oil pollution is lessening step by step,” CNPC said on its website. The company also reported that the main crude pipeline at the site resumed operations on Monday.

As devastating as the spill has been, it is less than 1 per cent of the volume of oil spilt from the Deepwater Horizon well.

Dalian is usually popular in the summer for its beaches and good seafood, but several beaches have been closed, and shellfish and abalone farms near the spill have been closed.