Underwater wireless sensor network transmission leads to higher energy consumption due to propagation distance and high energy loss. Moreover, the acoustic medium of acoustic animals and shadow affects the transmission between the source node and destination node. Some demerits of underwater communication are multipath fading, high path loss, frequent packet drops, limited bandwidth, salinity, pressure, temperature, sink hole and curved paths. These factors affect the network lifetime, packet delivery ratio (PDR), link quality and energy. To overcome these problems, Multilayer Clustering-based Butterfly Optimization Routing (MCBOR) algorithm has been introduced to deliver the data packets to the destination without any loss using the sense of butterflies. The proposed work aims to increase PDR and reduce transmission loss. The performance of the proposed MCBOR is evaluated by comparing its performance with state-of-the-art methods. Based on the evaluation report, the proposed MCBOR gives a packet delivery ratio of 0.98%, end to end delay of 6.3 s, and residual energy of 0.47 J. Thus, MCBOR is proved to be more efficient in PDR and reduces transmission loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]