This is the first reported protein recovered from surimi rinse by high viscosity chitosan （viscosity>400 mPa·s）. In order to obtain the optimal process conditions of the protein recovery， the factors influencing the protein recovery of high viscosity chitosan were studied. The factors such as temperature， pH， time， concentration of chitosan were researched by single factor experiment and the optimum conditions were obtained by the orthogonal experiments. The concentration of protein and COD were determined by using biuret method and potassium dichromate method， respectively. The optimal conditions for protein recovery were as following： pH 6.5， 20 ℃， 90 min， concentration of chitosan 1.67 mg/mL. Under the optimum conditions， the recovery rate of protein was up to 43.68% and the removal rate of COD was 22.73%.