Abstract: In order to improve the accuracy and efficiency for recognition of underwater targets, fractal texture features including box dimension, blanket dimension and multifractal spectrum are calculated by texture feature extraction algorithm with side scan sonar images, and the shipwreck identification procedure based on Adaboost cascade classifier is constructed. The shipwreck recognition experiments have been carried out, and the results are compared. Research shows that the recognition method based on fractal texture features comprehensively considers the global and local texture features of the image, and does not rely on manual selection of threshold parameters and feature vectors, which can improve the accuracy and efficiency of target recognition.