In anticipation of San Diego Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann confirming his latest tentative ruling asking the city to disperse La Jolla’s harbor seal colony, Judge William Q. Hayes signed a restraining order Wednesday, Oct. 22, temporarily protecting the rookery. Bryan Pease, attorney for Animal Rescue and Protection League’s Sealwatch, said he sought the order of protection for a colony of harbor seals at La Jolla’s Children’s Pool. Hofmann heard an argument to disperse the seals from Paul Kennerson, attorney for swimmer Valerie O’ Sullivan, who first sued the city for allowing the marine mammals to interfere with citizens swimming and diving — a lawsuit Kennerson won by arguing that the seal colony hindered the purpose of the Children’s Pool 1931 Ellen Browning Scripps trust. But San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre argued that the original ruling — decided by Judge William Pate — said nothing about dispersing seals. Hoffman ruled under submission Tuesday, saying that he would most likely order the city to disperse the seals within the next few days, said Deputy San Diego City Attorney George Schaefer. So Pease went before Hayes to preempt Hoffman’s likely ruling, asking for an order of protection for the seals. The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act preempts enforcement of state law, Pease said. La Jolla’s harbor seal colony is protected under the federal MMPA. Hayes, a U.S. Federal District Court Judge, issued the temporary protective order through Nov. 25, according to Aguirre. Meanwhile, the order prevents “harassing or dispersing the colony of harbor seals at Children’s Pool Beach in La Jolla, California,” Aguirre’s office wrote in a press release. “The order gives the city additional time and avoids what could have been a chaotic situation, if the seals were required to be removed by the city as they approach pupping season,” Aguirre said. — Please see related story, “Judge leans to dispersement of seals.”