diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index ce8bbb65f0f..0dcb2b70c9f 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Release 0.3.0 - Unreleased
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-801  When a table haven't disable, shell could response in a "user
               friendly" way.
+   HBASE-816  TableMap should survive USE (Andrew Purtell via Stack)
 
   NEW FEATURES
   OPTIMIZATIONS
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableInputFormatBase.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableInputFormatBase.java
index b5f912f628e..31c4888496b 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableInputFormatBase.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableInputFormatBase.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import java.util.Set;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.UnknownScannerException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Scanner;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.RowFilterInterface;
@@ -41,6 +42,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.InputSplit;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobConf;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.RecordReader;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Reporter;
+import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
 
 /**
  * A Base for {@link TableInputFormat}s. Receives a {@link HTable}, a
@@ -85,17 +87,18 @@ implements InputFormat<ImmutableBytesWritable, RowResult> {
   implements RecordReader<ImmutableBytesWritable, RowResult> {
     private byte [] startRow;
     private byte [] endRow;
+    private byte [] lastRow;
     private RowFilterInterface trrRowFilter;
     private Scanner scanner;
     private HTable htable;
     private byte [][] trrInputColumns;
 
     /**
-     * Build the scanner. Not done in constructor to allow for extension.
+     * Restart from survivable exceptions by creating a new scanner.
      *
      * @throws IOException
      */
-    public void init() throws IOException {
+    public void restart(byte[] firstRow) throws IOException {
       if ((endRow != null) && (endRow.length > 0)) {
         if (trrRowFilter != null) {
           final Set<RowFilterInterface> rowFiltersSet =
@@ -107,14 +110,23 @@ implements InputFormat<ImmutableBytesWritable, RowResult> {
               rowFiltersSet));
         } else {
           this.scanner =
-            this.htable.getScanner(trrInputColumns, startRow, endRow);
+            this.htable.getScanner(trrInputColumns, firstRow, endRow);
         }
       } else {
         this.scanner =
-          this.htable.getScanner(trrInputColumns, startRow, trrRowFilter);
+          this.htable.getScanner(trrInputColumns, firstRow, trrRowFilter);
       }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Build the scanner. Not done in constructor to allow for extension.
+     *
+     * @throws IOException
+     */
+    public void init() throws IOException {
+      restart(startRow);
+    }
+
     /**
      * @param htable the {@link HTable} to scan.
      */
@@ -190,19 +202,25 @@ implements InputFormat<ImmutableBytesWritable, RowResult> {
     /**
      * @param key HStoreKey as input key.
      * @param value MapWritable as input value
-     *
-     * Converts Scanner.next() to Text, RowResult
-     *
      * @return true if there was more data
      * @throws IOException
      */
     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
     public boolean next(ImmutableBytesWritable key, RowResult value)
     throws IOException {
-      RowResult result = this.scanner.next();
+      RowResult result;
+      try {
+        result = this.scanner.next();
+      } catch (UnknownScannerException e) {
+        LOG.debug("recovered from " + StringUtils.stringifyException(e));  
+        restart(lastRow);
+        this.scanner.next();    // skip presumed already mapped row
+        result = this.scanner.next();
+      }
       boolean hasMore = result != null && result.size() > 0;
       if (hasMore) {
         key.set(result.getRow());
+        lastRow = key.get();
         Writables.copyWritable(result, value);
       }
       return hasMore;