SAN DIEGO -- Another salvo has been fired in San Diego's ongoing seal saga.

U.S. District Court Judge William Hayes on Monday reaffirmed his order blocking the city from removing a colony of seals living at Children's Pool Beach in La Jolla.

The order comes less than a week after a San Diego County Superior Court judge said the city must move the seals. Judge Yuri Hofmann set a June 15 date for a hearing to determine how to do it.

The city wants to use recordings of barking dogs to scare off the 200 or so seals.

Seal activists say the animals should be left in peace and removing them could affect tourism because people come to look at the mammals.

In response to the federal judge's order, the City Attorney's Office released the following statement:

The federal court ruled today that its order prohibiting harassment or dispersal of the seal colony at Children’s Pool remains in effect.

After many years of litigation, the City of San Diego remains under order from the state court to remove the seals and federal court to allow them to remain. This underscores our position since February of this year that the solution to this dilemma is through state legislation that allows the City to decide the use of this beach.

This beach is owned by the State of California and was granted to the City of San Diego to hold in trust. The state court is enforcing the terms of that state trust. There is pending legislation to change the terms of that trust to give the City discretion as to use of the beach. The State Senate has already passed the legislation by an overwhelming vote and it will soon pass the State Assembly. Once adopted, this legislation will render the state court order moot.

We believe it is prudent to put all litigation on hold pending the State of California’s action, as owner of this beach, to change the terms of the trust.