EPA kids Web site focuses on healthy fish consumption.

A new federal Web site is designed to help kids identify the healthiest fish to eat.

Debuted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August, the site, at www.epa.gov/fish advisories/kids, uses interactive stories and games to help both children and their parents make healthy choices.

For example, the "Fish Kids" site features a story about a shopping trip. Cartoon kids accompany their parents to the grocery store, where Mom pulls out an information card from her doctor advising catfish, pollock and salmon as healthy fish to incorporate into a weekly diet. A memory game lets kids match different types of fish, from swordfish to mahi mahi.

"Our new Web site is a fun way for kids and parents to learn about the importance of fish in a healthy diet and how to choose the healthiest fish to eat," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, JD, LLM, EPA's assistant administrator for water.

State, tribal and local governments issue fish advisories when contaminant levels are deemed unsafe. They may include recommendations for specific groups of people, including pregnant women and children. Most advisories involve five primary contaminants--mercury, PCBs, chlordane, dioxins and DDT. The chemicals persist for long periods in sediment and can pass along the food chain to fish.

The new Fish Kids site offers advice to parents, including a link to a national list of advisories and an interactive map listing local fish advisories. It also links to technical information on how federal health and environmental officials assess the risks and benefits of fish consumption.

The site was chosen as the August "Site of the Month" by kids.gov, the official children's portal for the U.S. government.