Erin Spencer, PhD

Today is the day! The Incredible Octopus is now on bookshelves. Thank you to the incredible team at @StoreyPub for bringing this dream to life. Now available via Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, or wherever you get your books! @HachetteUS hachettebookgroup.com/titles/erin-sp…

Ever wonder what life at sea is like? Join a webinar to hear from a variety of professionals LIVE from sea as they describe their roles on a coral restoration expedition. Tune in Tuesday, April 14 at 11 a.m. EDT: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/mdbc-live…

@garrett_TFE Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest, by Henri Rousseau, 1905, @garrett_TFE

Guys I can't keep seeing these Carroll stories without warning, I feel like I haven't stopped crying for 12 hours

@alltooriah Tell your cat the Artemis II crew said pspsps

Our recent paper featured in @AAAS EurekAlert!

Great hammerhead sharks keep hunting at full speed, even as ocean temperatures shift. Florida International University (FIU) scientists, led by alumna Erin Spencer and co-author Yannis Papastamatiou, discovered that these predators stay near peak performance across a wide range of temperatures, chasing fast prey from winter blacktip sharks to summer tarpon and barracuda. The FIU team’s tracking and thermal studies suggest hammerheads may handle climate change better than other sharks, but as critically endangered predators, warming seas could still push them into riskier waters. @FIUCASE Read more: news.fiu.edu/2026/these-sha…

“I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.”

Inspiring

Thank you @WildlifeMag for featuring our recent paper on great hammerhead thermal performance! discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/m… @Dr_Yannis @FIUMarineBio

@J_Exp_Biol @Dr_Yannis @FIUMarineBio @FIUCASE @FIU Extremely grateful for my collaborators at @fiucase/@FIUMarineBio, @MoteMarineLab, and @GeorgiaAquarium. And so, SO excited to share this final piece of my PhD. (2/2) Read it here: journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/229/6

The final chapter of my PhD is published in @J_Exp_Biol. I’m proud of this work & excited to share it! We used biologgers to estimate great hammerheads' temperature “sweet spot.” We saw they can perform well at a range of temps, which supports observations from the field. (1/2)

Calling educators and ocean enthusiasts! Join a team of experts LIVE at sea for a livestream specifically geared towards high school students, but all are welcome. Join the conversation tomorrow (3/31) at 2 p.m. ET: youtube.com/watch?v=vIYLtM…

#MondayMood 🐠 Museum technology is shifting how specimens are processed, providing more accessibility for research, education, outreach and collaboration. Explore our online exhibit: Inner Beauty 🩻 Skeletons Revealed from the Museum’s Fish Collection floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onlin…

#DidYouKnow? Most of the sanctuary stretches into the #mesophotic zone, where habitats only receive about 1-10% of the light from the surface. Learn more about how these habitats in @FGBNMS are helping restoration efforts across the Gulf: flowergarden.noaa.gov/about/mdbc.html

.@BlairBraverman is one of my all-time favorite writers, and her recent piece for @nytimes is truly exceptional. I cried the whole way through it. Thanks for bringing us along. nytimes.com/2026/03/18/mag…

There’s old, and then there’s “deep-sea coral” old! Some #deepsea coral colonies can live for thousands of years. Learn how they age so gracefully here: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/ocean-fact/how…

Join experts live from NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to hear how advanced ocean landers collect long-term data and help us plan restoration efforts in the Gulf. Find the link to join the conversation on March 27 at 2 p.m. EDT, here: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/mdbc-live…

do you have a quadruple gait or is your locomotion worm-style

🐙 #BirchAquarium has reached a major milestone in cephalopod care with the successful settlement of Red Octopuses! Experts believe this is the first time the #RedOctopus species has been hatched, raised and successfully settled in aquarium care! today.ucsd.edu/story/birch-aq…

From March-May, join a new webinar series livestreamed from NOAA Ship Nancy Foster! Throughout an upcoming expedition to restore deep-sea corals, the at-sea team will cover a wide range of topics. Read the full story on our website: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/mdbc-live…