Identification Photos: Sedna, Glossodoris sedna: The Sedna is a nudibranch and member of the Chromodorididae family. It is named after Sedna, the mythical goddess of sea creatures of the Arctic created by the Inuit, the indigenous people of Alaska, Greenland, and Canada.

The Sedna is found throughout the Sea of Cortez in Mexican waters and south to Ecuador along the Pacific coast of North America. It is fairly easy to identify due to the overall white body with red tipped gills and rhinophores (fleshy sensory flaps on the head) and the yellow and red margins of the foot.

The Sedna has an extraordinarily long radula (a toothed chitinous ribbon in the mouth used for cutting and chewing food before it enters the esophagus). It reaches a maximum length of 30 inches and is found in tidal pools up to 150 feet deep in the water column.

Sedna, Glossodoris sedna: Observed at Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, by Vista Sea Sport divers in last August 2007. Description courtesy of John Snow. Photo by Neal Peake courtesy of Simon Cazaly.