The traction winch in the traditional ship-based retrieval system generally adopts speed control method,which leads to the constant oscillation of the cable tension between the load and the traction winch under the action of the ship lifting and sinking,which may eventually cause the cable damage or even breakage and other problems.PID,fuzzy PID and BP fuzzy neural network PID traction winch tension controllers were designed to perform cable tension control simulation.Through simulation,it is found that the established BP fuzzy neural network PID controller has the highest accuracy of cable tension control under irregular waves and different loads; the system is smooth and no overshoot,and has fastest dynamic response when subjects to disturbances compared to the other two controllers.