The present investigation deals with the assessment of nutritional quality characteristics of commercially important finfish and shellfish of the Gulf of Mannar coast. Three fish landing centres namely, Thoothukudi (Station -1), Veerapandianpattinam (Station -2) were selected and the commercially important fish samples were collected for proximate composition. Two fish species from each category viz. Pelagic (Sardinella longiceps and Selaroides leptolepis), demersal (Epinephelus quoyanus and Lethrinus lentjen) and bottom (Penaeus semisulcatus and Portunus sanguinolentus) were used for the present study. Totally six samples were collected periodically from October 2012 to March 2013 to assess the proximate composition, in the above selected fishes with respective stations. The proximate composition of collected fish samples were analysed by adopting the standard procedure. Among two landing centres, the highest value of moisture (81.73%). The maximum value of crude protein (19.77%) was recorded in Selaroides leptolepis followed by Penaeus semisulcatus (19.42%), Epinephelus quoyanus (18.91%), Lethrinus lentjen (18.79%), Sardinella longiceps (16.92) and Portunes sanguinolentus (16.90%). Similarly, the highest value of crude fat (6.87%) was recorded in Sardinella longiceps followed by Penaeus semisulcatus (0.62%), Lethrinus lentjen (0.49%), Selaroides leptolepis (0.47%), Epinephelus quoynaus (0.45%) and Portuns sanguinolentus (0.36%). In ash and carbohydrate contents in all the varieties of fishes there was not much variations observed.