*Result*: White shark fish optimization-based cluster head selection and fault-tolerant multi-path data communication mechanism in WSN.

*A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a network that comprises heterogeneous and homogeneous nodes possessing the capability to sense, process, and transfer data through a wireless medium. The energy consumption is a crucial factor that should be considered during the design and deployment of WSNs. This research proposes an effective Cluster Head (CH) selection and fault-tolerant multi-path data communication technique in WSN. Here, a novel White Shark Fish Optimization (WSFO)-based routing scheme is proposed to discover an ideal route from the source to the sink in case a faulty path is encountered. The WSFO is the integration of sailfish in SailFish Optimizer (SFO) and the White Shark Optimization (WSO). Further, two fitness functions are devised in this work to enable the WSFO algorithmic technique in selecting the optimal CH and path. Moreover, the proposed WSFO-based routing is assessed for its supremacy based on performance metrics, like energy, delay, throughput, inter-cluster distance, and intra-cluster distance, and the devised method is observed to achieve values of 0.964J, 0.158s, 0.748 Mbps, 2.053m, and 245.761m, correspondingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]*