The marine resource management discourses limits its concern for property rights to their role as instruments of resource management. Through the analysis of a conflict over communal marine tenure at Dullah Laut village in Maluku, Eastern Indonesia, this paper highlights the socio-political and economic values of communal marine tenure. It argues that communal marine tenure in Dullah Laut village is not considered merely as an instrument for controlling marine territory and resources but also as a form of ‘political capital’.