Every few minutes, a fish explodes out of the Savannah River, and the stillness is broken by a loud splash. Fish seem to be everywhere except on the end of the fishing line held by Chris Weathers as he sits on the riverbank.

"They've been teasing me all morning," he said.

If he does catch anything, he'll probably give it away to whomever is hanging around the bait shop nearby. And that might be a good thing.

Georgia and South Carolina have long had advisories about how much fish people should eat out of the river and waterways, with the main concern being mercury. But that message might not be reaching people, two doctoral nursing students at the Medical College of Georgia found.

Jacqueline Miller and Corliss Derrick conducted a small pilot study at Underwood Homes and found that many were not aware of the dangers of eating too much locally caught fish.

For pregnant women in this area of the state, for instance, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources recommends limiting locally caught fish to one meal a month.

"What we want to do is strike a balance," Dr. Manning said. "We want to encourage people to continue to consume fish because in general it's believed that people in the U.S. don't eat enough fish. So the concept is, make the best choice as far as what fish to consume."

The MCG doctoral students found that was part of what they could help educate the residents of Underwood Homes about, Dr. Miller said. To continue fishing and eating fish "but hopefully with the knowledge of appropriate portion size, and the appropriate way to cook and trim fish," she said.