Water covers more than 70 % of the entire planet, contains much of its natural resources. With the increasing use of underwater sensors for the exploitation and monitoring of vast underwater resources, underwater wireless sensor network (UWSN), mostly based on acoustic transmission technologies, have been developing steadily in terms of operation range and data throughput. In an energy-constrained underwater system environment it is very important to find ways to improve the life expectancy of the sensors. Compared to the sensors of a terrestrial Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), underwater sensors cannot use solar energy to recharge the batteries, and it is difficult to replace the batteries in the sensors. This paper reviews the research progress made to date in the area of energy consumption in underwater sensor networks (UWSN) and concentrates on developing routing algorithms that support energy efficiency. These algorithms are designed to carry out data communication while prolonging the operation time of WSNs.