A meeting is being held in Fiji to select a candidate for the post of director of the Solomon Islands-based Forum Fisheries Agency.
Two groups of countries are vying to provide a successor of Feleti Teo of Tuvalu whose six-year tenure is to end this year.
The Fiji meeting brings together the eight members of the so-called Nauru Agreement which is half of the 16 Forum countries.
The Nauru Agreement's candidates are the Marshall Islands chief secretary to government, Robert Muller, and a Papua New Guinea diplomat, Lucy Bogari.
The three other candidates for next week's vote are from Samoa, Australia and Vanuatu.
Observers say the Australian candidate is likely to fail because Australia already provides the heads of two key regional bodies.
