As one of the major components of the blue economy and food security, coastal fisheries resources are vital for the sustainable economic development, livelihood security, management and conservation. However, concurrent comprehensive study on assessing abundance and composition of faunal diversity from coastal and marine waters are scant. A yearlong field inventory was conducted with the aim to assess the present status of available fish and shellfish taxa from marine and estuarine waters of South-Eastern coast explicitly Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar districts of Bangladesh. Both qualitative and quantitative data concerning the current perspectives of fishery resources to assessing the existing realities of species compositions were accounted. The collected taxa (specimens) were identified based on expert knowledge sharing, secondary document consultation and internationally practised appropriate methods. A total of 64 taxa including 54 finfish species under 27 families and 10 shellfish species under 2 families were recorded from the study area. On the basis of family-wise contribution Sciaenidae showed the highest percentage (11%) represented by 6 species, followed by Gobiidae (9%) and Scombridae (9%) both represented by 5 species, whereas Engnaulidae and Cynoglossidae scored (7%) with 4 species. For shellfish (shrimp) species Pennidae exhibited (80%) contribution represented by 8 species followed by Hippolytidae (20%) represented by 2 species. The specimens were then preserved in the laboratory as the first step towards setup of a Fish Museum in the Faculty of Fisheries, Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU) which may facilitate laboratory education for effective leaning and helpful to respected stakeholders including scientist, researchers, students and managers as well.