Shifting winds have freed dozens of vessels from fields of ice off Newfoundland's northeast coast, although coast guard officials say it will take days before the siege concludes.

Some 43 longliners are still stalled by heavy ice, preventing the return of fishermen from the annual seal hunt earlier this month, coast guard officials said Monday.

Dozens of sealing vessels have been stuck in ice off Newfoundland's northeast coast for more than a week.
(CBC)

At one point, more than 100 vessels were stuck in heavy ice that was pushed to the shore.

But with winds shifting from southwest to west, ice is being pushed off shore, and coast guard vessels have been able to make headway in cutting passages through ice.

"It was a pretty close call, I must say," said Rodney Grey, who was stuck with his crew for a week off Cape Freels.

The coast guard vessels Henry Larsen and George R. Pearkes were able to open up a passage, just as ice was threatening to push vessels ashore.

"We never had no control; we were just drifting with the ice," he said. "Wherever it went, we had to go with it."

The Canadian Coast Guard, which dispatched a vessel from Halifax on the weekend to assist five others that have been keeping ferry and transport routes open, said about 10 longliners have sustained ice damage and may require assistance heading back to port.

More damage could become evident once the ice clears altogether. That, officials said, may take another week.