Self-cleaning submerged instrumentation

Apparatus for use with a device that has an exposed window surface, or an exposed active transducing surface that is part of a transducer and is outside any sealed chamber that may be associated with the device, and is (a) critical to performance of the device and (b) operated at least partially submerged within and in direct contact with an aqueous medium and (c) susceptible to biofouling;

• said apparatus comprising:
• an ultrasonic cleaning system operating at a frequency or frequencies in a range of approximately twenty kilohertz to four hundred kilohertz;
• and
• means for fixing the ultrasonic cleaning system to or integrating the ultrasonic cleaning system into the critical surface, to vibrate the critical surface and thereby reduce or substantially eliminate biofouling of the critical surface, particularly formation of a biofilm on the critical surface.