The Jersey Shore may end up being shored up with a number of artificial islands.

In the lasting wake of Superstorm Sandy, which pounded the coast from Maryland to New Hampshire, was blamed for 159 deaths, and caused the states of New Jersey and New York alone nearly $79 billion in damage, a proposal has surfaced to erect a series of manufactured islands approximately 10 to 12 miles off the coast that would effectively brake the potential water intrusion and pounding from any future storms.

The islands would be uninhabited, although day trips for surfing or fishing could be allowed, those familiar with the project explain.

An island would be built by sinking a foundation made of rock, concrete or other material and then pumping sand on top of that, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Also, a gap would be left between the New York and New Jersey island groups in order to let water from the Hudson River to continue flowing out into the ocean.

The island idea carries an initial price tag of between $10 and $12 billion.

"We've discussed this with the governor's office of Recovery and Resiliency and the Department of Environmental Protection, and they all look at me like, 'Whoa! This is a big deal," Alan Blumberg, a professor at New Jersey's Stevens Institute of Technology, said in the AP story. "Yes, it is a big deal. It can save lives and protect property."

The so-called "Blue Dunes" proposal is an outgrowth of Rebuild By Design, a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to come up with new ways to fortify the densely-populated East Coast of protecting people and property against any Sandy-like storms in the future.

The islands idea is reportedly one of 10 projects slated to be voted on next week, without a guarantee any of them will receive funding.

Other shore mitigation ideas include building sea walls around cities, re-establishing oyster colonies in tidal flats, which would help diffuse wave action, and creating water-absorbent nature preserves and recreational area.

The plan for the artificial island string was devised by Stevens Institute, in collaboration with WXY architectural firm and West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture.

"How do you protect New Jersey and New York at the same time from the storm of the future?" Blumberg asked.

"Our idea is to build a chain of islands, like a long slender banana," he said. "The wave action and storm surge will reflect off these islands and go back out to sea rather than hitting the coast. Barnegat Bay would not be pounded, nor would lower Manhattan or Hoboken."