I’m Peter Goggins, I’m a senior environmental science major in CAHNR, founder of Pisces Atlantic. My company produces a commercial fish feed made from alternative, novel, protein sources. These feeds are intended for use on big fish farms where most of the global supply of seafood is produced. I was inspired to create an alternative feed after I learned how environmentally destructive conventional feeds are as well as their increasing scarcity (and associated skyrocket of price), in recent years; I learned about this after reading a National Geographic article and decided that I was going to revolutionize the industry by making a more effective, greener feed that could be sold at a lower price than what’s on the market today. Pisces Atlantic feeds are a clean break from what is typical in the aquafeed industry by completely disregarding traditional nutrition sources and utilizing vegetable & insect proteins in their place to create a more effective, more sustainable, and more economical feed.

I’ve enjoyed a decent amount of award recognition over the last few years: I’m a past GetSeeded winner, two-time Accelerate UConn program graduate, second-place finalist and award winner of the Innovation Quest program here at UConn as well as a summer InQbator graduate. More recently I’ve won an award from the city of Middletown’s Collision pitch event, been accepted to CCEI Summer Fellowship, and filed a patent application after having been accepted to the UConn IP Law Clinic. Finally, I was awarded a grant to facilitate the use of an intern team through UConn’s brand-new VentureWerx program. I’ve conducted extensive rounds of R&D, made a season-long exclusive-supply sale to a farming business, and have recently focused my efforts on constructing a manufacturing line at my facility in East Hartford.

Summer Fellowship has been fantastic and eye-opening. If I had to boil it down to one critical aspect I’d highlight the interactions with industry experts and mentors: I cannot overstate how helpful it has been to continually have meetings with the program guests and allow them to vet my ideas, evaluate my pitch, and help me build out my business. I’m particularly excited to keep making sales, my manufacturing should be live soon and I’m anxiously anticipating an influx of regular sales!