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. 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. A schedule of shipping in the Piscataqua is not available.

Piscataqua River Currents
Tue 02:17am    Moonset
Tue 02:25am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Tue 04:17am    0.88 knots Max Flood
Tue 05:21am    Sunrise
Tue 08:04am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Tue 11:06am    -1.78 knots Max Ebb
Tue 01:47pm    Moonrise
Tue 02:57pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Tue 05:07pm    0.96 knots Max Flood
Tue 05:51pm    0.95 knots Min Flood
Tue 06:45pm    0.97 knots Max Flood
Tue 07:57pm    Sunset
Tue 08:54pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Wed 12:05am    -1.55 knots Max Ebb
Wed 02:37am    Moonset
Wed 03:28am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Wed 05:20am    Sunrise
Wed 05:22am    0.77 knots Max Flood
Wed 06:27am    0.74 knots Min Flood
Wed 07:09am    0.75 knots Max Flood
Wed 09:05am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Wed 12:14pm    -1.70 knots Max Ebb
Wed 02:53pm    Moonrise
Wed 03:52pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Wed 07:45pm    1.01 knots Max Flood
Wed 07:58pm    Sunset
Wed 09:49pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins

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.