Elizabeth Hurley's latest bikini Instagram post with starfish sparks backlash despite rescue efforts

foxnews.com:

Elizabeth Hurley is known for going viral with her swimsuit snaps – but her latest photo has put her in hot water. On Tuesday, the British model, actress and swimsuit designer took to Instagram and uploaded a picture of herself sporting an aqua string bikini.The 56-year-old was all smiles on the beach while holding two starfish. "Found these magnificent starfish, alive but stranded, on the beach – they’re now happily back at the bottom of the sea," she captioned the photo.

While many of her 2.3 million followers praised her famous physique, others took issue with her holding the animals for a photo.

Elizabeth Hurley noted on her Instagram post that the starfish are "now happily back at the bottom of the sea." (Daniele Venturelli/Daniele Venturelli / Getty Images) "They are extremely delicate and most likely won’t survive once you take them out of the sea and manipulate them… Google it," one commenter wrote. "You must not take them out of the water," another warned. "You just killed those stars by taking them out of the water," another chimed. "And the relevance of the star fish is?" one questioned. "Found these magnificent starfish, alive but stranded, on the beach," Elizabeth Hurley shared. (Ian Jacobs/Getty Images) "They are beautiful, too bad they died after you took that photo," one wrote. "People must know that starfish die when you take them out of the water!" Reps for the star didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

According to National Geographic, starfish, or "sea stars," are purely marine animals.There are no freshwater sea stars and only a few live in brackish water.The outlet noted that there are some 2,000 species of starfish living in all the world’s oceans and their average.