River traffic. Piscataqua River currents restrict travel by tankers and other large vessels to slack tide, roughly four hours a day. See chart below for slack tide at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor (map). Because the entrance is nearly three miles from the location of the PortsmouthNH.com's HarborCam, slack tide at the HarborCam is roughly a half hour later than show on the chart. A schedule of shipping in the Piscataqua is not available.

Piscataqua River Currents
Fri 12:09am    Moonset
Fri 12:32am    1.63 knots Max Flood
Fri 04:04am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 05:25am    Sunrise
Fri 07:08am    -2.38 knots Max Ebb
Fri 08:56am    Moonrise
Fri 11:03am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Fri 01:08pm    1.40 knots Max Flood
Fri 04:49pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 07:33pm    -1.88 knots Max Ebb
Fri 07:53pm    Sunset
Fri 11:13pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Sat 12:54am    Moonset
Sat 01:24am    1.45 knots Max Flood
Sat 05:00am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Sat 05:24am    Sunrise
Sat 08:03am    -2.23 knots Max Ebb
Sat 10:13am    Moonrise
Sat 12:01pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Sat 02:03pm    1.26 knots Max Flood
Sat 05:51pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Sat 07:54pm    Sunset
Sat 08:31pm    -1.74 knots Max Ebb

Current Conditions

New Hampshire-Maine border. The N.H.-Maine border lies in the middle of the Piscataqua River. Its exact location was the subject of a long-running dispute settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Piscataqua River. This Piscataqua River is a 13-mile long tidal estuary formed by merging of the Salmon and Cocheco rivers. The river, which separates Maine and New Hampshire, also drains Great Bay, a National Estuarine Research Reserve site. The last 8.8 miles of the Piscataqua River constitute Portsmouth Harbor, which stretches across New Castle, Portsmouth, and Newington, and the Maine communities of Kittery and Eliot.

Currents. The swift currents of the Piscataqua River make Portsmouth Harbor one of the fastest flowing commercial port waterways in the northeastern United States. The ice-free deep-water channel has been used for shipping since the 1600s.

Points of Interest
1. Moran Towing tugboats
2. Public benches
3. Ferry Landing restaurant
4. Tug Alley Too tugboat
5. Memorial Bridge
6. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
7. Badger's Island, Kittery, Maine

What kind of name is Piscataqua (Piss-cat-a-qua)? Easy for you to say, but not so easy to spell. See an extended examination of the origin of the word at SeacoastNH.com and 20 ways to spell Piscataqua.

More information. For more about the Piscataqua River, see the Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources web page.