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Maui Ocean Center is charting a new course

With new 3-D theater, exhibits and nonprofit marine institute, it’s no longer just an aquarium

By Chris Sugidono 4 min read

MAALAEA -- Maui Ocean Center -- the island's most popular man-made attraction -- is developing an exhibit master plan that will feature a 134-seat, fully immersive 3-D theater and several other exhibits.

"It's going to be amazing," General Manager Tapani Vuori said last week. "We are really hoping to make it something people have never seen before."

The over $3 million theater will be part of a new Humpback Whale Discovery Center exhibit located on the Nalu Lawn next to the center's administration building, Vuori said. The theater will be a large dome in the middle of the exhibit.

"It's like a huge military radar dome," he said.

A German filmmaker visited the island during whale season for the second time this year and is producing a movie for the theater, Vuori said. He added that an exhibit designer is on staff and a construction manager is working on the final permit applications that will be presented to the county this week.

Vuori said he hopes the exhibit will be ready by early next year.

"I can't make any promises yet, but all the people involved in the construction of this are really excited," he said.

The master plan includes a few smaller exhibits to open sometime before the theater. Those include ones showcasing global climate change and limu, or algae. The Papahanaumokuakea Gallery opened in May. It offers a glimpse into the world's largest marine national monument and pays homage to Hawaiian heritage.

Indigenous native Hawaiian landscaping is nearly complete at the center with cultural practitioners teaching visitors how to make old fishing nets and explaining state fishing regulations.

The changes should continue to boost visitor numbers for the center, which tallied 314,000 -- making it one of the top attractions in the state, according to Pacific Business News.

While the center welcomed 450,000 before the Great Recession in 2008, the attraction is recovering after it "stagnated a little while," Vuori said. He added that the center is on track to welcome 340,000 visitors this year, trailing only Haleakala National Park and Iao Valley.

Vuori made it clear, however, that new exhibits and visitor numbers are not everything. Since taking over as general manager a year and a half ago, he led the charge to form the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute that works on developing rehabilitation facilities for endangered turtles, expanding an existing coral bank at the aquarium and providing marine sciences educational opportunities.

"We're going through a paradigm shift where we are really becoming a community resource," he said. "We are no longer just an aquarium."

Vuori serves as president of the board of the nonprofit marine institute, which has yet to hire any employees. He expects to select a manager within the next two months.

"We felt from the beginning that we have enough fundraising, which we've been able to do now, that we can hire a program manager that hopefully we can have in place for one year so we're not just hiring somebody for two months and letting them go," he said. "We want to be very prudent in how we're running it. We're almost there."

Vuori said many people have expressed interest in volunteering for the nonprofit and the manager will build a robust network to manage it. Orientation programs and meaningful activities for volunteers also will be developed, he said.

"This is our kuleana and what I mean about being a community stakeholder," said Vuori, who has been with the center since 2002. "We take positions and showcase to people what is important because we are the ocean experts. If it's not us then who? This is our moral obligation and how passionate I feel about it."

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.

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