Light ashfall and poor weather is continuing to hamper the search for two missing bodies off Whakaari/White Island.
Whakaari / White Island in the hours after the eruption. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
The search for Hayden Marshall-Inman and Winona Langford, who are believed dead after the eruption last Monday, has today been hampered by poor weather conditions.
Read more on the Whakaari/White Island eruption:
- Whakaari/White Island eruption: a timeline of 9 December
- The dead and the missing
- Search helicopter forced to turn back from White Island
- WorkSafe giving no details on tour company audits
Police this afternoon said their Eagle helicopter had searched Taungawaka Bay this afternoon, and police would continue to focus on areas from the island through to East Cape based on tidal patterns and as weather allowed.
Meanwhile patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington had left the waters near the island to help in a separate search and rescue operation, as it was not required for the response to the eruption, they said.
The HMNZS Wellington was the closest available vessel with the necessary medical capabilities to help a crew member on the fishing vessel Connie S, 1300km away.
The Rescue Coordination Centre said an emergency beacon alert was received about 6.30pm yesterday evening.
The HMNZS Wellington was expected to take about 24 hours to reach the fishing boat.
Police earlier said the helicopter had been forced to turn back about 5.30am due to bad weather.
They said the dive squad would not be returning to the water today.
GNS Science volcanic geologist Graham Leonard said light ashfall had been seen in the water near the island.
"There's some plumes of murky, cloudy water," he said.
Mr Leonard said this would make it harder to see in, and the ash may have killed some fish near Whakaari/White Island too.
"But it rapidly drops off away from the island because there's just so much ocean water for it to be mixing with," he added.
Mr Leonard said GNS's monitoring equipment on Whakaari/White Island was functioning except for a web camera that went offline on Saturday due to ash covering the solar panel powering it.
He said rainfall was clearing the panel of ash and it was expected to come back online.
A separate seismic data station on the island may go offline later this week because of the same issue, he said.
As well as the two missing another 16 people have been confirmed dead as a result of the eruption, while 26 remain in hospitals in New Zealand and Australia, 10 in a critical condition.
Local tour guide Marshall-Inman, and Langford - a 17-year-old Australian tourist - were confirmed today by police as the two remaining missing people.
Police have also named 15 of those killed, excluding only the most recent victim who died in Australia after being trasferred to Concord Hospital in New South Wales with serious burns.