Asw long as Songbob posted lyrics from the Digital Tradition above, let me post some corrections, based on what I hear on Bok's Herrings in the Bay album and what I see in the Time and the Flying Snow songbook. Three main things:

• And oh, they hunger after me - in each stanza but the first
• Where the fishermen lie - the only difference between the last and first verse
• "mares' tails" are a cloud formation, as are "mackerel skies" - so "tales" wouldn't make sense

HERRING CROON
(Gordon Bok)

Where do you go, little herring?
What do you see, tail-and-fin?
"Blue and green, cold and dark,
Seaweed growing high,
Hills a hundred fathom deep
Where the dead men lie,
Dogfish eyes and mackerels' eyes,
And they hunger after me;
Net or weir, I don't care,
Catch me if you can."

Where do you go, little boat,
Tar and timber, plank and sail?
"I go to green bays,
Lift them under me,
Cold, grey, combing seas
Come to bury me,
Rocky jaws and stony claws,
And oh, they hunger after me;
Harbors cold and deep and bold,
Wish that I could see."

What do you see, fisherman?
(Poor old sailor, blood and bone)
"Mackerel skies, mares' tails;
Reef and furl and steer.
Poor haul and hungry days.
Rotten line and gear,
Snow, wind, and winter gales.
And oh, they hunger after me;
Net or weir, I don't care,
Catch you if I can.

Where do you go, little herring?
What do you see, tail-and-fin?
"Blue and green, cold and dark,
Seaweed growing high,
Hills a hundred fathom deep
Where the fishermen lie,
Dogfish eyes and mackerels' eyes,
And oh, they hunger after me;
Net or weir, I don't care,
Catch me if you can."

Words and music by Gordon Bok, BMI.