In this paper, we investigate the performance of an Underwater Wireless Optical Communication (UWOC) system employing on–off keying modulation at a data-rate of 500 Mbps over a link-range of 30 m. Transmit/receive diversity schemes, namely Multiple-Input to Single-Output (MISO), Single-Input to Multiple-Output (SIMO) and Multiple-Input to Multiple-Output (MIMO) techniques with and without RS-coding have been employed to mitigate the effects of weak oceanic turbulence and beam attenuation. The novel closed-form analytical Bit Error Rate (BER) expressions of Single-Input to Single-Output (SISO), SIMO, MISO and MIMO links for un-coded and RS-coded cases have been computed using the hyperbolic tangent distribution and validated with Monte-Carlo simulation results. The obtained BER results show that the use of (63, 51) RS-coded 4× 5 MIMO UWOC system offers at-least 35 dB of transmit power gain compared with the un-coded SISO UWOC system at a BER of 1 0− 5. Emerging technologies like the fifth-generation (5G) networks and the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) will have a high impact on UWOC as these systems require a high degree of information integrity, high data rates and energy efficiency when employed in conjunction with data transfer between underwater vehicles and objects. The proposed RS-coded MIMO UWOC system offers high reliability and power efficiency and it has the potential to be gainfully employed in IoUT applications.