Risk of eruption delays Whakaari / White Island recovery efforts

Police are not yet able to give a timeframe for recovering bodies from Whakaari/White Island, because of the risk of eruption.

Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement said the highest priority among police and all the agencies remains recovering the bodies from the island.

"We are all equally committed to a solution that gets us safely on the island so we can recover people that we believe to be deceased on the island and return those people after the DVI [disaster victim identification] process to their whānau."

Read more on the Whakaari/White Island eruption:

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• Whakaari / White Island: the dead and the missing
• NZ needs to be clearer with tourists about risks - professor

The official death toll released by New Zealand authorities is eight, following two deaths overnight in hospital, one in Middlemore Hospital and the other in Waikato. Eight others on the island are presumed dead.

Clement said he could not give an assurance about the timeframe for recovering bodies, because of the status of the volcano and the risk of eruption.

Local knowledge will be taken into account in plans for any recovery operation, Clement said.

He said he met last night with some of the people who rescued survivors in the immediate aftermath of the eruption and was full of admiration of what they did.

"They are heroes ... and they made the right call to come off the island."

Two of those people will work closely with police on a plan to go back onto the island. "They've got incredible experience some of them decades with regard to going on to White Island."

However, Clement says it's not possible to go back to the island today, because of the heightened risk of eruption, nor can he give an assurance on a timeline of when that could happen.

"We are proceeding on the basis that the risk is the likelihood of another eruption and ... the presence of gases on the island."

"I can't give an assurance around the timeline ... until I can get a really clear sense of what the risk is with regard to the likelihood of an eruption in context with the plans that we are developing then I can't give a commitment to those families."

Nico Fournier of GNS Science said the chance of an eruption on Whakaari / White Island over the next 24 hours remained between 40 and 60 percent.

He said the situation remained highly volatile.

"This is the most active Whakaari / White Island has been since 2016. It is a really high level of unrest"

Scientists are is monitoring the island 24/7 and are continuing flights around the volcano to measure gas levels, an indication of how much magna is coming up in the crater.

GNS has reduced the volcanic alert status to level 2 but says the likelihood of another eruption in the next 24 hours remains.

Alert level 2 on the 0-5 scale indicates moderate to heightened unrest with the potential for eruption hazards.

'Growing sense of desperation'

Whakatāne Mayor Judy Turner said the families most affected are frustrated and asking to know what is being planned.

"While we fully appreciate the need for the safety of any recovery team going onto Whakaari / White Island to retrieve our loved ones, we are now living with a growing sense of desperation to bring home those we know are there and those we love."

Ms Turner said she was grateful for the decision to include a local person with knowledge of the island to help the recovery team.