Baltimore’s Phillips Foods Inc. and other U.S. companies are winding down imports of crabmeat as they brace for possible bans on foreign seafood on Jan. 1.

U.S. trade authorities announced this summer that fisheries from 46 nations had either missed a paperwork deadline or failed to meet standards to protect whales and dolphins under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The law calls for a ban on imported seafood from countries that don’t meet American fishing standards to protect whales and dolphins. In August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries published results of a yearslong investigation that concluded the world’s largest producers of crabmeat, such as Venezuela and Southeast Asian countries, had failed to meet these standards.

“You’re cutting off 89% of the source of imported crab,” said Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, the seafood industry trade group. “Crab cakes are coming off the menu. Period.”

The trade group, Phillips and other seafood importers are suing to stop the ban.

They asked a federal judge to grant a preliminary injunction, and they also want NOAA Fisheries to redo its investigation. In their lawsuit, the seafood companies and the trade group accuse agency officials of “arbitrary and capricious” findings.

Attorneys for the government have not yet filed a response to the Oct. 9 lawsuit. Representatives of NOAA and the White House did not immediately respond to questions, citing the government shutdown.

American crabmeat has largely been replaced by cheap foreign substitutes in crab cakes, soups and dips. State officials believe a majority of Maryland restaurants serve foreign crabmeat today.

Phillips Foods has imported blue swimming crab, a different species from Chesapeake Bay crab, from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam since the late 1980s. Imported crabmeat from these countries represents nearly $180 million in revenue per year for Phillips, the company reported in the lawsuit.

NOAA Fisheries determined Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam did not meet the U.S. standards for reasons such as using gill nets or other equipment that poses a threat to dolphins and whales, or for failing to send sufficient information about their fishing practices. The three Southeast Asian countries are the largest suppliers of swimming crab to the U.S., and Indonesia topped the list by exporting more than 26 million pounds last year, according to an analysis of trade data by the National Fisheries Institute.

U.S. officials recommended crabmeat from these countries be banned at the start of next year, but the shipments of pasteurized crabmeat from Southeast Asia spend weeks or months en route. The company had to wind down shipments this month to avoid a chance of stranding crabmeat at sea.

“We are finishing up our final shipments from Vietnam and Indonesia,” Brice Phillips, one of the family owners, said on Wednesday. “We don’t want to put something on a freight ship if we’re not entirely certain it will arrive here by Jan. 1.”

The countries deemed out of compliance with the U.S. law are permitted to reapply and show they meet the standards. A handful of countries — including Benin, Haiti, Iran and Venezuela — did not submit any documents at all.

Venezuela is the largest source of fresh blue crabmeat to the U.S. and supplied about 6 million pounds last year, according to the National Fisheries Institute. Venezuelan crabmeat is commonly used in crab cakes around Maryland.

In recent years, Venezuela has accounted for more than two-thirds of all fresh blue crabmeat imported by the U.S., according to an analysis of trade data by the company Descartes Datamyne.

Tensions continue to simmer between U.S. and Venezuelan leaders after American military strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. has sanctioned the government of Nicolás Maduro and offered $50 million for information leading to the Venezuelan president’s arrest on federal narcoterrorism, drug and weapons charges.

It’s unclear if foreign officials there are paying attention to the matter.

Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect the difference in import totals between Southeast Asian countries that supply swimming crab and Venezuela that supplies fresh blue crab.