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
2010-09-02 Thu 02:01am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
2010-09-02 Thu 03:50am    0.86 knots Max Flood
2010-09-02 Thu 06:08am    Sunrise
2010-09-02 Thu 06:27am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
2010-09-02 Thu 10:18am    -1.45 knots Max Ebb
2010-09-02 Thu 02:04pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
2010-09-02 Thu 03:07pm    Moonset
2010-09-02 Thu 04:13pm    1.10 knots Max Flood
2010-09-02 Thu 07:15pm    Sunset
2010-09-02 Thu 07:24pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
2010-09-02 Thu 10:52pm    -1.68 knots Max Ebb
Fri 12:07am    Moonrise
Fri 03:00am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Fri 04:46am    0.87 knots Max Flood
Fri 06:09am    Sunrise
Fri 08:05am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 11:15am    -1.48 knots Max Ebb
Fri 03:05pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Fri 03:59pm    Moonset
Fri 05:10pm    1.12 knots Max Flood
Fri 07:14pm    Sunset
Fri 08:40pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 11:50pm    -1.76 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.