Fuglvog, a longtime commercial fisherman, resigned from the council recently to join the Washington, D.C., staff of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

According to several sources, Gov. Frank Murkowski is expected to recommend three names to the Secretary of Commerce shortly after the Aug. 22 primary, with Gerry Merrigan as his first choice. Merrigan, of Petersburg, is the government affairs officer for Prowler Fisheries, owned by John Winther, a confidant of the governor.

Fuglvog held one of 11 voting seats on the council. There are also four non-voting seats, held by representatives of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the 17th Coast Guard District and the U.S. State Department.

The contenders, in addition to Merrigan, include Joe Childers of Juneau, Duncan Fields of Kodiak, and John Moller of Juneau, all members of the North Pacific Council's advisory panel. Also in the running are Ben Ellis of Anchorage, Peter Garay of Homer, Robert Loescher of Juneau, Sandra Moller of Anchorage, Walter Sargent and Jeff Stephan, both of Kodiak, and A. Bruce Tiedeman of Anchorage.

The state Office of Boards and Commissions provided some information from materials submitted by the applicants.

Childers is executive director of the Western Gulf of Alaska Fishermen. Fields, a Kodiak attorney, is a commercial fisherman and natural resources consultant, and John Moller, also a commercial fisherman, is the general manager of the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, a community development quota fisheries organization based in Juneau.

Ellis is the managing director of the Institute of the North, an Anchorage-based center for study of the lands, seas and resources that Arctic nations have in common. Garay, a marine pilot, is president of the Alaska Marine Pilots.

Loescher, now a Juneau business consultant, is a former president and chief executive officer of the Sealaska Corp.

Sandra Moller, the latest to apply for the post, is the president and chief executive officer of the Aleut Enterprise Corp. in Anchorage.

Sargent is a commercial fisherman based in Kodiak. Jeff Stephen is the director of the United Fishermen's Marketing Association Inc., in Kodiak, and Tiedeman, a former executive of Chugach Native Corp., is manager of community relations for the Alaska Energy Authority.

Only a few of the applicants were available to comment on their applications, including Loescher, Moller, Stephan and Tiedeman.

Loescher said his focus would be to help coastal communities, processors and fishermen realize opportunities available in the North Pacific and Bering Sea areas.

Moller has fished for nearly three decades. "The industry has been good to me, and I'm looking to give back to an industry that has treated me well," he said.

Stephan, who has served on the council's advisory panel and testified before the council many times, said, in his opinion, the council has moved significantly away from the role of an objective and balanced resource management entity toward that of a one-party political clique. "The balance, diversity, objectivity and distribution of perspectives of the council are unquestionably in need of change," Stephan said.

Tiedeman, who fished commercially in Prince William Sound for 25 years, said if chosen he would come "from a position of diversity and a capacity to facilitate things."

Other applicants were unavailable for comment.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at