SummaryUnderwater IoT is incredibly helpful in monitoring a variety of jobs, from instrument monitoring to climate recording, from pollution management to natural catastrophe forecasting. Nevertheless, there exist various issues that have an impact on a network's efficiency such as the formation of void holes, excessive EC, and low PDR. As a result, the IGOR protocol is suggested in this study to increase PDR by reducing the percentage of void hole occurrence. The developed routing protocols' scalability is also examined. Here, the parameter optimization for the EC minimization and PDR maximization is performed by a meta‐heuristic optimization algorithm referred to as TSA. In order to verify that the suggested protocol is EC‐optimal by calculating the viable areas. In addition, suggested protocols are evaluated against contemporaries' benchmark routing protocols. The outcomes of the simulations clearly demonstrate that the suggested routing protocols obtained greater PDR than the current techniques. Additionally, there exists a reduction in the ratio of void hole incidence. Comparative research reveals that suggested routing protocols outperformed benchmark routing protocols by 80–81% in PDR. Further, the suggested routing procedures reduced the frequency of void holes by around 30%.