This is not true lobsters shed every year and soft shells are generally availalble in the begining to mid summer when they move into the shore regions to spawn and feed.

There is no difference in Maine and Canadian lobsters they are the same species. As far as the qualitly is concerned the more local to the source the better. The issue mainly with this is the fact that Maine lobster is prized because of the fact of that overtime Canada and U.S have been in competition in the fishing industry for years and the Canadian lobster fisheries mainly the processing plants have forced the prices to drop/ and or caused the "boat price" for the lobstermen to severely decrease mainly due to price gouging. I know this because my fiance lobstered, her grandfather lobstered, and I live in Maine. Thus said American lobstermen are losing out on money from lobsters they caught due to Canadian processing plants, thus "Canadian" lobster is looked down upon.