diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c8cec90f3e5..6effead548e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -727,6 +727,8 @@ Release 0.90.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-3263  Stack overflow in AssignmentManager
    HBASE-3234  hdfs-724 "breaks" TestHBaseTestingUtility multiClusters
    HBASE-3286  Master passes IP and not hostname back to region server
+   HBASE-3297  If rows in .META. with no HRegionInfo cell, then hbck fails read
+               of .META.
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
index 275e400319e..21e995ddefe 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ import java.util.Comparator;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.TreeMap;
 import java.util.TreeSet;
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
@@ -81,7 +83,7 @@ public class HBaseFsck {
   private boolean rerun = false; // if we tried to fix something rerun hbck
   private static boolean summary = false; // if we want to print less output
   // Empty regioninfo qualifiers in .META.
-  private TreeSet<Result> emptyRegionInfoQualifiers = new TreeSet<Result>();
+  private Set<Result> emptyRegionInfoQualifiers = new HashSet<Result>();
 
   /**
    * Constructor