Data collected in May and June showed populations of carbon-eating bacteria were increasing in parts of a plume of oil drifting in deep water in the gulf, said lead author Terry Hazen, head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s ecology department.

“Within the last few weeks we’ve gone back and can find bacteria … but do not see detectable oil,” Hazen said. The most likely reason, he added, is that the voracious bugs ate it.

Now, he said, “since they no longer have the oil, they’re eating their [dead] brethren.”