Just so everyone knows ... I don't think anyone is overpaying for PK shrimp. If one is going to collect specimens from the wild ... that has value and it also cost ... it deserves compensation.
Many years ago PK shrimp were investigated in species combinations for fish production. The treatments were on the order of 20 lbs/acre. To be sure, these experiments didn't have the scientists wading the swamps ... they cultured them ... and yes we have known how to culture them for a long time. So why doesn't anyone culture them today?
Let me pose this as question. Why would someone stop producing FHM in a space in order to produce PK shrimp? The only reason I could think of is that it would pay him to do it. But consider producing 600 lbs of PK shrimp in the space you could produce 4000-6000 pounds of FHM. You would need to price the shrimp much higher. The guy on ebay sells them for $800 a pound in the 200 count. He deserves the price because you can't get it anywhere else. If anyone wants to complain about the price ... collect them yourself and you wouldn't mind it so much. Besides, its not like he is getting rich. According to the listing he has sold 20 of the packages. Its worth his while, supplements his income, but it isn't a living even though he is the only supplier.
But lets say someone decides to culture them and prices them by the pound at say $80. Do you think he would be interested to sell anyone a 200 count of them? Don't you think he would want to sell you 5 lbs instead? Who among us would be willing to pay $400-$800 to add an invertebrate? To be sure, there are some and I am among them. Even so, there are not very many.
