A. Brief Project Overview:
The Science Consortium For Ocean Replenishment And Enhancement (SCORE) is a science-based approach to stocking hatchery-reared marine organisms to help rebuild depleted marine fisheries (marine fisheries enhancement). SCORE scientists are conducting research to resolve critical uncertainties about the effectiveness of culture-based marine enhancement as a fishery management tool. It is anticipated that significant progress will be made by SCORE scientists, leading to greater and greater success from marine enhancement programs in the U.S.

As scientific gains are made in understanding the potential, SCORE scientists are partnering with NMFS and regional fishery-management agencies to develop policy and apply fishery-enhancement science to rebuilding depleted coastal stocks. Linkages with local fishing communities provide the cadre of citizens needed to support and expand enhancement as a fishery management strategy. Much of the enhancement technology developed here will be supported by funds generated by contributions and license fees paid by stakeholders and user groups. To fully embrace and use the marine enhancement concept, demonstrated success stories are needed in a few key states. SCORE research is planned and coordinated to achieve such successes. Built around the principles of a responsible approach to marine stock enhancement (Blankenship and Leber; and see Leber, 2002), SCORE scientists are conducting key experiments to resolve critical uncertainties about how to control the biological, ecological, and economic effectiveness of marine fisheries enhancement.

SCORE is an R&D initiative conducted by a consortium of national partners. It is a powerful alliance of scientists and fishery managers currently working in the field of marine stock enhancement in the U.S.A., which encourages improved utilization of their expertise and resources. Bringing these scientists and managers together through SCORE allows synergisms to develop that would not occur otherwise.

Reporting Period This contract commenced in September, 2001. This interim report covers progress made during the period July 1, 2004 through December, 2004. This phase of the project is part of a no-cost extension period (no-cost extension was approved through June 30, 2005).

B. Project Accomplishments:
This no-cost extension period was needed by all three principal partner institutions to provide additional time needed to complete and publish the work done under this contract. The activities conducted during this time frame were all related to data-base development, data logging, data reduction, and data analysis / statistical evaluation of SCORE studies conducted over the course of the entire contract period. Also, several of the studies are now in various stages of publication in scientific journals, with much attention given towards publishing during this reporting period. Powerpoint presentations for scientific conferences were also prepared during this period and presented to SCORE scientists at our annual planning meetings, which during this phase of the project were held during the last quarter of 2004.

References Cited
Blankenship, H. L. and K. M. Leber. 1995. A responsible approach to marine stock enhance-ment. In Uses and effects of cultured fishes in aquatic ecosystems. American Fisheries Society Sympo-sium 15:165-175.

Leber, K. M. 2002. Advances in marine stock enhancement: shifting emphasis to theory and accountability. Pp 79-90 In Stickney, R. R. and J. P. McVey (eds) Responsible Marine Aquaculture CABI Publishing, New York.