This amendment provides funding for science-based guidance on the management of existing and emerging disease threats to critical fishery and aquaculture resources in the Commonwealth and Chesapeake Bay region. This initiative was funded in the 2020 General Assembly Session but subsequently unallotted. Recent outbreaks of disease have damaged economically important and ecologically sensitive marine resources in the Commonwealth and nation. The pathogens responsible for these outbreaks are not well known, their risks to marine life and potential to spread remain poorly understood, and their ecological impacts have been difficult to assess with existing resources. To meet the challenge of diseases in marine systems, this initiative will provide science-based guidance on the management of existing and emerging disease threats to critical fishery and aquaculture resources in the Commonwealth and Chesapeake Bay region.