I was searching for the lyrics of an entirely different song when the title of this thread caught my eye. I have two observations: first, I played Roddy (it would take a while to summarise the plot of Neil Gunn's novel-suffice it to say I was, in effect Kevin McKidd's stepfather) in Wildcat Theatre Company's staging of John McGrath's adaptation of 'The Silver Darlings' back in about 1994. I think I'd be right in saying that John had written a film script, but couldn't get funds, so mounted it as a play in the hope that producers might see its potential as a movie. They didn't. Shame, but we kept ourselves amused touring the show imagining who they'd get to replace us when Hollywood turned up.
Second, might the song which initiated this thread not be Brian McNeill/Dougie Pincock's's 'Silver Darlings' as performed by the Battlefield Band back in the day?:

Between the Beggar's Mantle and the lights of Peterhead
The fisher lads were heroes and the herring was the creed.
The herring paid the factor, the herring fed the wean,
But now the herring's gone, and the fishing's no' the same.

As I recall there are three other verses about how oil riggery has replaced drift fishery, and this thread is so old now the song may need something of a codicil about IT or something.