Maui resident Matt Gorman has been appointed curatorial director at the Maui Ocean Center. Photo courtesy Maui Ocean Center

Maui resident Matt Gorman has been named the aquarium’s new curatorial director at the Maui Ocean Center.

Gorman, 31, leads a team of a dozen aquarists and divers who are responsible for the marine life under the center’s care.

The team’s daily tasks include preparing food and feeding animals, maintaining water and lighting systems, and carefully cleaning each exhibit. Tasks also include helping with exhibit design, including an expanded octopus display that recently opened.

Gorman said the new tank is two to three times its original size and features two Hawaiian day octopuses that can grow to 10 pounds and three feet in length.

He said the octopuses are smart and have the ability to change patterns and colors to mimic their surroundings.

“They actively problem solve and use their sight,” he said.

Gorman said the octopuses live in specially designed holes and are constantly monitored to make sure they’re well fed.

One of his favorite parts of the job has been overseeing Maui Ocean Center’s Shark Dive Maui program.

In the past, Gorman led hundreds of dives into the Maui Ocean Center’s 750,000-gallon open ocean exhibit — featuring five species of sharks — with visitors from around the world.

Sometimes during a dive, he’s in full scuba gear with a remote microphone in his mask to talk with a Center naturalist outside the tank making a presentation to the audience.

Gorman said he was a bit nervous the first time he dove to clean the tank containing several sharks but once in, the nervousness faded away.

Maui Ocean Center curator Matt Gorman dives with his father John, also a former curator. Photo courtesy of Maui Ocean Center

He said he believes sharks are perceived to be aggressive animals but they’re really opportunistic hunters and while in the tank he’s neither prey nor predator and he’s grown to develop a respect and understanding of them.

“I truly believe sharks aren’t aggressive animals as they’re portrayed to be. They’re scavengers,” he said.

He said sharks are vital to maintain a balance in nature.

Gorman said he feels the work at the Center is important because it introduces people to the underwater world.

“The animals in our exhibits act as ambassadors for their species and help us educate the public,” Gorman said.

“We want to create a connection between people and the ocean because you can’t care about something — or want to protect something — without having that connection.”

Gorman, who served as assistant curator for more than four years, moved to Maui as a young child and started working part-time at Maui Ocean Center after graduating from King Kekaulike High School in 2012.

The Maui Ocean Center was established in 1998.

As a child on Maui, he’s always loved the ocean, playing in tide pools, surfing and fishing, and basically wanted to turn his passion for the ocean into a career.

He said his uncles and father John, a former curator of the Ocean Center himself, were watermen as well.

“When you’re around passionate people, the passion spreads,” he said.

Gorman attended the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College and earned a degree in sustainable science management with an emphasis in marine science.

Maui Ocean Center’s parent company Coral World International is known for creating and growing specialized coral reef habitats tailored to their locations.

Its first ocean aquarium was the Coral World Underwater Observatory in Eilat, Israel established in the mid-1970s.

Gorman succeeds Chris Keller who has relocated to assist with Coral World’s Ocean Berlin, a new aquarium currently under construction in Germany.

In addition to Maui Ocean Center and Ocean Berlin, Coral World International operates the Palma Aquarium in Mallorca, Spain and the Aquarium of Western Australia in Perth.