The spearhead was found by a member of the Heritage Conservation Advocates (HCA) on the surface of Huluga in June 2003. It was brought to the National Museum by a student of the UP-Archaeological Studies Program (UP-ASP) with the expressed agreement that it would be returned after identification.

At the National Museum, archaeologist Dr. Eusebio Dizon identified the item as a whale harpoon head, adding that it was also found in Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Gigantes Island of Panay.

Dizon's statement gave national cultural signifance to the Huluga whale harpoon.

But Richard Ellis, Associate Researcher of the American Museum of Natural History, went further. After receiving a photo of the item from Elson T. Elizaga of the HCA, Ellis wrote in an email that a similar implement is used in Lomblen Iisland of Indonesia, a place 2,000 kilometers away from Huluga. Lomblen is part of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

Apparently because of the importance of this artifact, it was persistently kept by a UP-ASP archaeologist (not Dizon) for almost a year, and was given back only after Elizaga sent a letter meant as a requisite to a legal proceeding.

See map of harpoon sightings.