Project Puffin is an effort initiated by Dr. Stephen W. Kress of the National Audubon Society to learn how to restore puffins to historic nesting islands in the Gulf of Maine. It was started in 1973 when puffins were nesting in only two locations in Maine — Matinicus Rock and Machias Seal Island. The project began with an attempt to restore puffins to Eastern Egg Rock Island in Muscongus Bay, about away from Pemaquid Point. The restoration efforts are based on the fact that young puffins usually return to breed on the same island where they hatched.