WASHINGTON, Nov. 15  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A team of Rhode Island inventors today will be awarded the grand prize in the International Smart Gear Competition for a fishing gear innovation that could save thousands of fish and other sea creatures from dying accidentally in fishing nets each year, World Wildlife Fund and its partners announced.  The winners will be officially announced in Seattle today at the Pacific Marine Expo.

The Grand Prize winning team consists of University of Rhode Island Fisheries Center researchers Laura Skrobe and David Beutel and fishermen Jon Knight, Phil Ruhle Sr., Phil Ruhle Jr., and Jim O'Grady.  Their invention -- aptly named "The Eliminator" -- captures haddock while reducing the accidental netting of other marine species. The device works by taking advantage of the haddock's tendency to swim upward but not over the headrope when encountering the large mesh net invention, instead of swimming downward where they can escape the net, which is the tendency of other fish.  The Grand Prize winners beat out more than 70 other contenders from 22 countries.

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