made a few updates and tried this out

Author: kthyng

cmocean/cm.py

@@ -12,17 +12,10 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import os
+from matplotlib import colors, cm
 
 from . import tools
 
-# If matplotlib is available, load it
-try:
-    import matplotlib.colors as mplc
-    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
-    do_registry = True
-except:
-    do_registry = False
-
 # Location of rgb files
 datadir = os.path.join(os.path.split(__file__)[0], 'rgb')
 
@@ -41,18 +34,17 @@
     cmap_d[cmapname].name = cmapname
     cmap_d[cmapname + '_r'] = tools.cmap(rgb[::-1, :], N=256)
     cmap_d[cmapname + '_r'].name = cmapname + '_r'
-    
-    # Register the cmap with matplotlib, if available
-    if do_registry:
-        rgb_with_alpha = np.zeros((rgb.shape[0],4))
-        rgb_with_alpha[:,:3] = rgb
-        rgb_with_alpha[:,3]  = 1.  #set alpha channel to 1
-        reg_map = mplc.ListedColormap(rgb_with_alpha, 'cmocean_' + cmapname, rgb.shape[0])
-        plt.register_cmap(cmap = reg_map)
-        
-        # Register the reversed map
-        reg_map_r = mplc.ListedColormap(rgb_with_alpha[::-1,:], 'cmocean_' + cmapname + '_r', rgb.shape[0])
-        plt.register_cmap(cmap = reg_map_r)
+
+    # Register the cmap with matplotlib
+    rgb_with_alpha = np.zeros((rgb.shape[0],4))
+    rgb_with_alpha[:,:3] = rgb
+    rgb_with_alpha[:,3]  = 1.  #set alpha channel to 1
+    reg_map = colors.ListedColormap(rgb_with_alpha, 'cmo.' + cmapname, rgb.shape[0])
+    cm.register_cmap(cmap = reg_map)
+
+    # Register the reversed map
+    reg_map_r = colors.ListedColormap(rgb_with_alpha[::-1,:], 'cmo.' + cmapname + '_r', rgb.shape[0])
+    cm.register_cmap(cmap = reg_map_r)
 
 # make colormaps available to call
 locals().update(cmap_d)