PROVO, Utah (AP) - State officials have warned against eating very much carp from Utah Lake because high PCB levels found in the fish.

The state departments of Health, Environmental Quality and Natural Resources issued an advisory Tuesday urging adults to limit their consumption of Utah Lake carp to no more than one 8-ounce serving a month.

Women who are or may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children should avoid it altogether, the advisory says.

The advisory will be posted on signs at access points to Utah Lake.

"There are a number of other species (besides carp) that people fish for there," said Reed Harris, director of the June sucker program for the Natural Resources Department. "Frankly, we don't know anything about those species."

Predatory walleye, white bass and channel catfish are among fish that could concentrate PCBs in their bodies, but they have not yet been tested.

"I am, in my gut, worried, and you should be also, for people consuming" these fish, said Dan Potts of the Salt Lake County Fish and Game Association. "My assumption is that everything else (in Utah Lake) is at least as high or higher."

PCBs are a group of chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls linked to cancer and other harmful health effects, including neurological damage. The chemicals were used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment.

There are an estimated 7.5 million carp in Utah Lake, accounting for 90 percent of its volume of fish, Harris said.

Carp are bottom-feeders that get down in the sediments, churn around in the mud and make the lake turbid, Harris said.

"They basically make it so it's a better environment for them to the exclusion of all other fishes," he said.

Discovery of the PCB contamination in the carp came about as wildlife officials considered removing the carp as part of their program to restore the endangered June sucker fish.

The recovery team tested carp for heavy metals, pesticides and other dangerous chemicals to get a sense of how they might be sold as cow feed or some other marketable product.

That's when the PCB levels came in at more than double the safe level set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Carp and other fish will be collected and analyzed throughout the summer, Harris said.

John Whitehead of the Water Quality Department said results of tests on other Utah Lake species may be available in midsummer.

In addition, the Department of Environmental Quality will attempt to identify the PCB sources and the extent of the contamination.

"Typically, PCBs are in the sediments, not in the water column," Whitehead said. "We need to figure out where these are coming from and if there needs to be some sort of a cleanup."