Parts of South Australia's seafood industry are breathing a sigh of relief amid promising sales over the festive season, after a year dominated by the state's algal bloom.

This week's reopening of the Stansbury shellfish harvesting region off Yorke Peninsula is providing further cause for optimism, even though it occurred too late for the region's oyster growers to cash in on pre-Christmas sales.

Consumer confidence in local seafood was severely dented by the algal bloom, which was first detected in March last year and has caused major fish kills along the SA coast.

Manager of Adelaide fish market Seafood Works, Michael Violante, said recovery had been slow-going.

"The last few months we'd seen a significant downturn in customers — some months 1,000 customers less,"

he said.

Michael Violante says Christmas seafood sales were promising. (ABC News: Will Hunter)

The situation had left him unsure how much to stock leading into Christmas — but he said "finally seeing the customers show up was a huge relief".

He attributed the uptick in consumer confidence to the state government's dining cashback scheme.

Since early November, voucher holders have claimed 50 per cent off purchases from algal bloom-affected hospitality businesses and seafood retailers, up to the value of $50.

"The introduction of the dining cashback vouchers has really seen us get back on track which has been fantastic," Mr Violante said.

"We've seen over 600 vouchers come through that we're aware of, so it's potentially $60,000 worth of sales that we may not have had."

A South Australian government advertisement encouraging people to buy local seafood. (ABC News: Marco Catalano)

While those sales were not enough to make up for lost revenue over the past eight months, Mr Violante said they provided a good platform to begin 2026.

"December is nearly a quarter of our annual revenue, so it's really important for us just to stay afloat," he said.

"As of Christmas Day … we actually had six more customers than the year before, which is a victory.