For the 33rd consecutive year, Hartwell Lake is under a do-not-eat-the-fish advisory.

On Tuesday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control placed Hartwell, Jocassee, Russell and Thurmond lakes under advisories for various species of game fish.

The department is advising people not to eat hybrid bass and striped bass taken from any part of Hartwell Lake. All species of fish pulled from 12-mile Creek, the Seneca River arm of the lake and the Tugaloo arm in Georgia have been placed on do-not-eat advisories.

Channel catfish and largemouth bass pulled from Hartwell should be eaten only once a month.

Jocassee, Russell, and Thurmond lakes have been placed under limited-consumption advisories for largemouth bass and spotted bass.

Lakes Keowee, Secession and Greenwood are not under a fish advisory, nor is Broadway Lake.

The cause of the Hartwell Lake advisory is the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, found in fish sampled by the state health department. It is found in fish fat, not muscle.

Mercury is also part of the advisory, but Hartwell is the only lake on the state’s list that is contaminated with PCBs, said James B. Glover, manager of the health department’s aquatic biology section.

“This is a well-documented situation for Hartwell Lake,” Glover said. ”PCB was released into Hartwell Lake decades ago, before people understood the health effects, and it’s still in the water and sediment, and the fish. PCB doesn’t break down. As a result, it biomagnifies itself in the bodies of the fish.”