Underwater wireless networks consist of mobile and static nodes, which usually communicate using the acoustic channel since radio transmissions attenuate rapidly and optical communication is only suitable for short distances. The underwater acoustic channel is plagued with issues of high transmission power requirements, rapidly changing channel characteristics, multi-path echoes, possible high ambient noise, high and varying propagation delays. To achieve optimal performance an underwater network must be able to sense its ambient environment and react by adapting its communication parameters. This paper proposes to take a two-tier approach in order to develop adaptive underwater communications; by developing an adaptive routing protocol that reacts to environmental parameters and developing a software acoustic modem to enable lower layer adaptations as well.