<![CDATA[The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of fishery resources in Merauke Regency, South Papua Province, to contribute to national food security using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, integrating quantitative secondary data including production and economic contribution, with qualitative evidence from fishers, traders, and government stakeholders. The analysis reveals that despite the sector had a significant decrease of production after the 2014 fishing moratorium, the sector still has a high surplus of food other than local consumption and is a major contributor to regional GRDP, indicating a strong latent potential for food security. The study further exposes a governance paradox: the harvesting of high-value fish swim bladders leads to the waste of marketable fish meat, a behaviour that is economically rational for individual fishers but detrimental to collective food security and blue economy goals. This paradox is not only a descriptive finding, but a contribution to theory of sustainable fisheries governance. It explicates how misaligned incentives between individual livelihood strategies and collective stewardship of a resource—a classic common-pool resource dilemma—are reproduced and sustained even under existing conservation policy. Moreover, it demonstrates how integrating quantitative and qualitative evidence can reveal governance dynamics invisible to single-method studies. Based on these insights, the study proposes stakeholder-specific interventions, including transparent pricing mechanisms for swim bladders, partnership-based incentives for sustainable practices, technology support for small-scale fishers, and investment models for empowering indigenous communities. The study thus contributes theoretically to blue economy and food security scholarship and practically to food sovereignty in resource-rich but institutionally constrained areas.]]>
