US land-based salmon farmers face a major shortage when it comes to a critical part of their business: procuring the eggs needed to raise significant amounts of Atlantic salmon each year.

It's a dilemma Brian Peterson, research leader with Maine's National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center, hears about regularly, he told IntraFish.

"A lot of these guys want 20 million eggs," he said of the land-based salmon farmers who have proposed projects in the state. "If we worked hard at it, the most we could ever produce would be one million."