Police are now coming up with a new plan to retrieve the two bodies still missing from the Whakaari / White Island eruption.

A search on and around Whakaari-White Island this morning failed to find any sign of the bodies.

Police are now debriefing, reassessing and coming up with a new plan.

Navy and police divers are working together and have starting searching again in the ocean near the island.

Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Clement told media after recovery teams had returned safely to the mainland this morning that a search was made along a stream running down the mountain to the sea.

"The stream where the bodies were last seen on Monday all the way through to the sea," he said.

"We have found no further bodies in that area."

Clement said police had been working on the theory one body was at sea and the other still on land.

He said everyone involved in the operation was still deeply committed to do everything to find the bodies, if they were there to be found.

Clement said today's result had been a blow to all involved.

"Everyone who went out there is absolutely desperate to find the bodies and return them to loved ones.

"There is every chance that the second body is also in the sea but we wanted to clear the area today, which is effectively what today's exercise was about."

Three helicopters took eight police search and rescue and victim identification personnel to the island.

Two of the helicopters were privately owned and each had two pilots on board with local knowledge. A police Eagle helicopter was flying above with a GNS scientist aboard monitoring the volcano.

The recovery team has departed Whakaari / White Island and is on the way back to the mainland.

— New Zealand Police (@nzpolice) December 14, 2019

On Friday, six bodies were recovered from the island.

Today's teams were wearing the same protective clothing as the Defence Force personnel who recovered six bodies on Friday.

Recovery teams wash off toxic residues after their mission to Whakaari/White Island. Photo: Robin Martin

Yesterday, GNS said there had been no further eruptive activity since Monday's fatal blast, but the situation remained highly volatile.