Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) can be applied in sea resource reconnaissance, pollution monitoring and assistant navigation, etc., and have become a hot research field in wireless sensor networks. In open and complicated underwater environments, targets (events) tend to be highly dynamic and uncertain. It is important to deploy sensors to cover potential events in an optimal manner. In this paper, the underwater sensor deployment problem and its performance evaluation metrics are introduced. Furthermore, a particle swarm inspired sensor self-deployment algorithm is presented. By simulating the flying behavior of particles and introducing crowd control, the proposed algorithm can drive sensors to cover almost all the events, and make the distribution of sensors match that of events. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that it can solve the underwater sensor deployment problem effectively, with fast convergence rate, and amiable to distributed implementation.