New Hampshire has the shortest coastline in the country, about 18 miles of it, and its harbour porpoise record is correspondingly compact: 13 reports since 2000, the most recent from July 2022. Rockingham County, which covers nearly all of that seacoast, leads the county list, with single reports reaching inland to Hillsborough and Strafford counties, likely animals documented in the tidal Piscataqua and Great Bay system.
Reports cluster in March and April, with a smaller June rise, matching the porpoise’s preference for cold water. The Gulf of Maine is some of the best porpoise habitat on the East Coast, so the thin state tally says more about New Hampshire’s short shoreline and few observers than about the animals offshore.
A record set this small can’t speak to trends or abundance. Each report, whether a live animal spotted from Odiorne Point or one found along the beach, is simply a confirmed encounter logged in a state where the ocean window is narrow.
Full species profile
