Four wild populations of Pampus argenteus were sampled from nature coast area of Huanghua City in Hebei Province(PH),Lianyungang City in Jiangsu Province(PJ),Zhoushan City in Zhejiang Province(PZ) and Huilai City in Guangdong Province(PG),respectively.The capture was conducted in May 2008.The muscle nutritional composition of P.argenteus from 4 different areas was measured by conventional biochemistry.As a result,crude protein content in the muscle of fish from PZ and PJ was significant difference(P<0.05),while there was no significant difference in other each pair of populations.There was no significant difference in crude fat content among the four populations(P>0.05).Fish from PJ had the highest total and essential amino acid contents(65.14% and 27.32%,dry weight).The following was fish from PZ(64.31% and 26.42%,dry weight).The lowest total and essential amino acid contents(60.32% and 25.47%,dry weight) were in the muscle of fish from PH.There was significant difference of total and essential amino acid content among the four populations(P<0.05).Fish from PJ and PZ had higher essential amino acid index(EAAI)、amino acid score(AAS) and chemical score(CS) than those of the other 2 populations.The total saturated and unsaturated fatty acid contents in the fish muscle from four populations shown significant difference(P<0.05).Fish from PJ and PZ had higher polyunsaturated fatty acid content than those from other two populations.It was apparent that the nutritional quality of fish from PJ and PZ was better than those from PH and PG.Based on the clustering analysis,the difference of amino acid content in fish from PJ and PZ was smallest,while having the biggest difference with that from PG.For fatty acids,fish from PZ and PH had similar content,also had the biggest difference with that from PG.