Eating fish is good for you, all the state fishing, environmental and health agencies agree, just not too much from any Pennsylvania stream, river or lake.

For the eighth year in a row, the agencies are advising people to limit their consumption of the state's sport fish to no more than one meal a week because the fish could contain high levels of mercury or polychlorinated biphenyls -- PCBs -- industrial chemicals that could cause cancer, birth defects or illnesses.

And in Chartiers Creek, where tests show smallmouth bass contain higher PCB levels, the advisory is much tighter -- just one meal every two months.

"No one should be discouraged from fishing or eating fresh fish in moderation," said state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty, who noted that fishing is important to the state's tourism industry. "We just want to make sure anglers have the most up-to-date information when they fish Pennsylvania's waterways."

The 2008 statewide advisory, issued this week by the DEP, the state Fish and Boat Commission and the Health and Agriculture departments, is especially designed to protect the health of pregnant women, women of childbearing age and young children. One meal is one half pound of fish for a 150-pound person.

Other new consumption advisories for specific streams, rivers or lakes include: one meal a month for brown trout due to PCBs in Yellow Breeches Creek, Cumberland County, and smallmouth bass due to mercury in the Chemung River, Bradford County.

Specific advisories that have been modified from last year include:

• A two-meal-a-month advisory for mercury has been lifted for smallmouth bass in Presque Isle Bay in Erie County.

• The one-meal-a-month advisory for walleye due to PCBs in the Allegheny River has been replaced by a two-meal-a-month advisory, but due to mercury not PCBs.

• A "do not eat" advisory for channel catfish due to PCB contamination in the Monongahela River from Lock and Dam 2 to the Point in Pittsburgh has been modified to a one-meal-a-month advisory.

More information on the fish consumption advisories for specific streams, rivers and lakes is available on the DEP Web site at www.depweb.state.pa.us/watersupply/cwp/view.asp?a=1261&q=450642