JR: Growth of the aquarium industry itself can be determined from the annual
industry survey conducted by Pet Dealer Magazine. Amanda Barker has my copy
of
the current issue, from which one can calculate that sales of marine
livestock
in the year studied were $123 million. Similar calculations on previous
years'
data should reveal the degree of growth. Reef aquariums specifically are not
segregated in this industry survey. Several years ago, I arrived at an
estimate
of about 100,000 reef tanks in the United States, based on data released from
a
private survey done for Warner Lambert (Tetra). Since the reef phenomenon is
barely ten years old, any data are going to be hard to pin down. I do not
have
any of the pertinent references available, but I would say between 100,000
and
250,000 is reasonable. I base this on the fact that Aquatic Specialists
easily
and routinely collects about 5,000 hobbyist names per year, and we have
saturated the available advertising media pretty well. Assuming our response
is
typical for the mailorder industry, we get 0.5% of the customers. That
translates to 1,000,000 marine aquarists, each of whom, therefoer, spends on
average $123 per year on livestock, an entirely reasonable number. 10 -25%
reef
tanks, a commonly seen estimate bandied about on the internet, etc., would
give
100,000 to 250,000 reefs, as opposed to essentially zero in 1986 when George
Smit's articles first appeared in FAMA. Hope this helps. Bob is welcome to
contact me directly via email if questions.
JHT